The Thoughts of Zexion
by OLD KH JUNK ACCOUNT
Summary: Zexion, stripped of his physical form and most of his powers, drifts from world to world and gives his thoughts on people, places, and events.
1. DiZ

After his apparent death in Castle Oblivion, Zexion lived on--as a shadow of his former self, still living, though not what you'd usually call "life." Stripped of nearly all his power--not to mention his physical form--by the Soul Eater held by Vexen's Riku Replica, Zexion drifts throughout the various worlds and watches the events taking place.

These are the thoughts of Zexion.

* * *

**Darkness in Zero**

Ansem the Wise, Ansem the researcher, Ansem the great sage-king...

Hmph. More like Ansem the foolish, Ansem the scared little boy. It was his fault all of this happened in the first place. What kind of man is still afraid of the dark well into his adulthood?

That's how it all started, after all. First he discovered that the heart contains two forces, usually in small and evenly-balanced amounts. Out of the old traditions of his race, he named these forces "Light" and "Darkness." We should have known, at that point, that Ansem, our leader, was a fool--why cling to the myths of the past? We were scientists, not theologians.

But the old man never could throw off the superstitions of the past. The discovery of this "Darkness" disturbed him--he likened it to the "Darkness" of the ancient myths. The rest of us all knew that this "Darkness" of legend was simply a euphemism for evil, not referring to any true physical or spiritual energy--but our leader ignored our words.

It was I who first suggested that we should study the Darkness, hoping that what we found would eliminate his irrational fear. All of the initial tests proved that the opinions of our leader were false, and that the Darkness was no more harmful than any other form of energy yet discovered.

But our leader was a fool. He ignored the results, claiming that the experiments were flawed, that if there was more Darkness present we could see its ill effects for ourselves. It was at this point that everything began to fall apart.

He became obsessed with proving that the evil "Darkness" of superstition and this newly-discovered Darkness were one and the same. The experiments became more and more dangerous, and less respectful of those who had donated their hearts to our cause. We had always performed the experiments as if we were performing them on an intelligent being, or the world's most valuable treasure--now, our leader was treating the hearts he experimented on as if they were insects, worth nothing and easily disposable.

_"Maybe if he treats 'em like bugs, they'll turn into bugs and crawl away."_

That's what Xigbar--though he was Braig at the time--said when I first brought up my concerns. It doesn't seem so funny anymore, now that it has essentially come true. It was that one last experiment that threw everything out of balance.

Rather than simply experimenting on a heart's Darkness, he amplified it. And like all forces of nature, Darkness in excessive quantities is a powerful engine of destruction.

But even then he refused to see the truth through his fog of superstition. He blamed the transformation of his test subject's heart on the Darkenss, not the fact that he had amplified that Darkness to completely unnatural levels. He ignored the fact that, in the process of his experiment, the heart had been removed from its body. All of our previous experiments left the heart intact.

It was my fault as well--I suggested that we study the Darkness first, hoping to dispel his fear, but that was a mistake. Perhaps I should have pointed him toward the Light instead--then things may have turned out differently.

Or maybe, in the long run, they would have been mostly the same. If he had chosen to amplify the Light rather than the Darkness, the result would have been similar--and just as destructive as any Heartless. I have seen proof of this now, in my ghostly travels throughout the worlds.

"Darkness in Zero." "DiZ." That's what he calls himself now, ever since Xehanort stole his name in one of his first of many moments of insanity. It's a bit ironic, that the one who once feared the Darkness now gladly hides his name behind it.

Only a fool assumes good and evil are composed of anything more than the thoughts and actions of the individual. Evil is neither Dark nor Light, or any combination thereof. The potential for evil exists in us all--in Ansem, in the Heartless, in the young Keyblade wielder, and even within myself... no living being is truly free from its temptation, nor truly consumed by it.


	2. Organization XIII: The Early Years

**The Organization--The Early Years**

"Who is more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?"

That saying never seemed relevant before, but it fit Xehanort's insanity quite well. While Ansem amplified the Darkness out of childlike, superstitious fear, Xehanort did the same because he sought to draw power from the Darkness, to become something more than just a mere researcher. Who is more of a fool? That all depends on how you look at it, I guess.

Either way, those two fools eventually caused the downfall of our research, our city--and even our world. But any natural force driven to its destructive limits has other side-effects beyond simple destruction, and so the Organization XIII was born.

As we soon discovered, the body did not simply fade away when a Heartless sprung forth from it--it was sent to another world, far away from Radiant Garden and its insane Darkness-fearing king.

Xehanort was the first to go, but his transformation was quite different from the rest in two ways--first of all, his heart already contained an immense amount of Darkness long before any experimentation was done, and second of all, he gave his body up willingly.

I'm not sure which of those differences was the cause, but somehow Xehanort's Heartless retained the form of its former body, with only a few minor changes taking place. Once Xehanort was a Heartless, he insisted on each of his fellow researchers becoming one as well--but none of us would go willingly.

The unwillingness of others never stopped Ansem, and it never stopped Xehanort either. For a second acting just like any other Heartless, he tore our hearts from our bodies by force and transformed them into Heartless--mindless, insect-like Heartless, not like Xehanort. My heart ended up as some kind of bizarre lizard-like creature, but I can't remember exactly what became of the other four Heartless.

Whatever happened to our hearts, it was of no concern to us anymore. They were lost, blending in with all of the other Heartless that were steadily amassing within the dungeons of Ansem's castle. We were now Nobodies--still ourselves, but somehow not--and we had arrived on a new world.

Each of us knew, somehow, that we were no longer the same beings as before. Because of this, we each decided to choose a new name--Xehanort, who by this time had been calling himself "Ansem" for years, chose the name "Xemnas." It was his previous name rearranged, with a single X added to symbolize the heart that each of us had lost. This X, much like the X in algebra, was a variable--though each X looked the same, they all symbolized a different heart.

Braig, formerly the one in charge of money and scientific supplies in the group as well as the second-oldest, was now Xigbar.

Dilan, the group's bodyguard and the third-oldest member, was now Xaldin.

Even, who was once the greatest scientist of the group as well as the oldest, was now Vexen.

Elaeus, the man in charge of food and other supplies as well as the one who did any construction work required, was now Lexaeus.

And I, formerly Ienzo, the group's tactician and janitor, was now Zexion.

Xemnas set himself up as the leader of this "new" group--if you could really say it was a new group at all--and began referring to himself as "the Superior." Fortunately, he was no longer obsessed with Darkness--unfortunately, this obsession had shifted toward the hearts themselves rather than either of the two forces within.

We first discovered an ancient castle on the outskirts of the world we had arrived in. It seemed abandoned, not touched by any form of intelligent life for several thousand years yet still standing, unharmed by the elements. We avoided the castle--it was too large and too unkept for six people to possibly clean up.

Not long after our discovery of Castle Oblivion came our first encounter with other Nobodies. At the time, we didn't realize that we, as intelligent Nobodies, could control the lesser varieties, so we were forced to fight them off. It was then that we discovered the strange new powers that we had gained as Nobodies.

We could each control some type of matter or energy, and each of us were able to summon forth a powerful weapon out of pure energy. Summoning the weapons came quickly, and seemed to be mostly based on instinct--controlling our other powers came much more slowly, which was quite a problem for Xemnas, Vexen, and I, who lacked much skill in physical combat.

The first Nobodies--the ones we now call "Dusks"--were fought off by Lexaeus and Xaldin, though it was quite an effort at first, even for them. Eventually each of us gained better control over our powers, built up our physical strength, and grew more skillful with our weapons. Working together, we managed to fight off the other, less-intelligent Nobodies that had arrived on our new homeworld with us, along with other enemies--Heartless, thieves, mobs of villagers intent on burning us at the stake, and more. There was even a lone Keyblade wielder, the first we had ever encountered anywhere outside of the ancient legends, who proved to be our most difficult challenge, by far, in the early years.

Xemnas, originally one of the weakest of the group, quickly grew incredibly powerful as he mastered his combat skills. Rather than wielding a physical weapon, he preferred to fight with blades of pure energy which could be formed in his hands without even the slightest amount of concentration--revealing his rather frightening power of making small amounts of energy from nothing.

Xigbar, too, grew powerful--his powers allowed him to manipulate the very fabric of space, transporting him from place to place in an instant or letting him ignore gravity's pull. He quickly grew fond of floating in midair, upside-down, while gunning down the near-helpless Nobodies that attacked him. Even now, this trick is one of his favorite moves in battle.

Xaldin, though not very skilled in day-to-day life, become monstrously powerful in battle, second only to Xemnas out of the original six members. Though at first he could only call forth one of them, he eventually became so skilled at combining his weapons with his wind powers that he was able to control six spears at once, whirling around, slashing and jabbing at anything that moved.

Vexen lacked strength in combat, but his powers--and weapon--weren't meant to be used with just brute force. His weapon was a spiked shield, optimized for defense but capable of dealing a good blow to an enemy as well. Using his powers, he was able to chill the air around him, making it painful for an opponent to move or even freezing them in place.

Lexaeus, like Xaldin, grew to be a very powerful fighter in our early years. His weapon, a strange axe-like blade which he called a "tomahawk," was by far the most dangerous one in the early Organization, capable of crushing an enemy's bones, splitting them cleanly in half, or both. Also like Xaldin, Lexaeus was good at using both his weapon and his powers at once, causing earthquakes with a slam to the ground or launching a barrage of rocks at his opponents.

And I... I was, sadly, left behind in the combat department. Even Vexen could easily defeat me, both in physical and energy-based combat, without much trouble. Though I had the advantage of youth, it seemed that youth really wasn't as much of an advantage for Nobodies as it was for normal humans--so I was forced to use my mind, rather than my weapon, to fight. My powers allowed me to manipulate others with illusions, so I developed these powers to the highest level. At the height of my power, I could convince someone that their best friend was trying to kill them--and have them not only believe it, but feel the pain from each of their friend's blows.

But that power is gone. I'm no longer a weaver of shadows, but a shadow.


	3. Organization XIII: Part 2

**The Organization--Part 2**

We lived a nomadic life on the Twilight world for about a year before we discovered the portals. The "Dark Passage" is what the locals called them--and the name stuck. Through these portals, we discovered new worlds that none of us had ever known existed.

We learned of the history of the World of Light, of which Radiant Garden's world was once part of, and discovered the ancient reasons behind that world being split into many smaller worlds.

We learned about the Twilight World that we had arrived on, and how that world is both the source of the first Keyblades and the pathway to all other worlds.

We learned about the World of Darkness, a world of perpetual night where the only source of light is the heart-shaped moon composed of the hearts of those who had died in the past.

And we heard stories of the existence of other worlds, beyond our own three-world system, which could not be reached by Gummi Ships or the Dark Passage.

The Organization, then only six people, visited many of the worlds before settling on the World of Darkness--specifically, a part of that world which contained a strange city known as "The World That Never Was." At the time, this city was populated by various species--far from the Heartless-infested wasteland that it is today. We borrowed the clothing of the people living there--black, hooded cloaks with various chains and zippers for decoration--and adopted these cloaks as our own.

It wasn't long before we were the only ones wearing those cloaks. Several years passed, and the number of Heartless entering the world steadily grew larger. We, along with the other people of the city, tried to fight them off, but there were just too many. Xemnas had us construct a flying castle, high enough above the ground to prevent swarms of Heartless from reaching us, and we escaped the Heartless invasion that way.

The other citizens of the city weren't so lucky. It was reduced to a ghost town within a year, stripped of all life but a seemingly-infinite number of Heartless. We noticed that new Heartless seemed to be developing, stronger Heartless--they were still quite insect-like, but some of them were now humanoid in shape and much more dangerous than before.

Another year passed, and suddenly we found ourself with a seventh member. Though we hadn't noticed at first, Braig's younger brother had apparently been caught by the Heartless a little while after our move to the World of Darkness, and now his Nobody was wandering the Twilight World in search of his older brother.

We found him passed out just beyond the edge of the World That Never Was one day, carrying an enormous sword and lying in the middle of a circle of defeated Heartless and Nobodies. He had run out of energy just as he had slain the last few attackers, collapsing in a heap on the ground. We picked him up and carried him back to our base, where he slowly recovered from his wounds.

Unfortunately, it seemed that not all was right in his head. It seemed that his last burst of strength had left him in a sort of coma, and his brain didn't come out of the coma unharmed. Though Xigbar claimed he had been this way all his life, I could tell this was just another of his jokes--he always did enjoy insulting people, and his brother, like all little brothers, got the brunt of the insults.

Though the new member, who decided on the name Saix once he had recovered enough to speak again, had some trouble early on, he quickly bounced back and became one of the most powerful fighters in the Organization--most likely, stronger than all except Xemnas. His mental state never fully recovered, but most of the time he manages to cover it up--coming off as very creepy rather than just insane.

I never did trust Saix very much--it bothered me that he rose in the ranks so quickly, becoming Xemnas' second-in-command within a matter of months. He also didn't tolerate weakness, physical or otherwise, in his fellow Organization members--which meant that he and I would have quite a few disagreements in the future. Fortunately for me, however, another member would arrive soon that would give Saix a new target for his frustrations--Axel.

Axel, unlike everyone else so far, had first appeared in Twilight Town rather than somewhere in the wilderness. Also unlike everyone else, he was very young--even younger than I was. At the time he joined the Organization, he was still in his late teens, not even old enough to legally drink alcohol on most worlds (though that never stopped him, of course).

Axel was always a troublemaker of the group, but he was also very loyal to the Organization. Up until he joined, the Organization had operated mostly out of survival, with each member helping the others out of self-preservation rather than because we actually liked each other. Lexaeus and I got along fairly well, and occasionally the two of us would talk to Vexen also, but for the most part there were no real "friendships" in the Organization.

That is, of course, until Axel joined. While all Nobodies lose control of their emotions, making it difficult to express certain feelings no matter how much you feel them, Axel didn't seem to have any less control than he did as a complete being. He added some much-needed color to the base--and not just with his bright-red hair, either. Though Vexen and Xigbar looked down on him a little because of his age (the "old man" jokes didn't help much, either), Xemnas saw his potential and allowed him to stay with the group as a permanent member.

Not long afterward, we began actively searching for other Nobodies like us--if eight of us could survive the process of losing our hearts without regressing to Dusks or other lesser Nobodies, surely more existed somewhere. The search was immediately successful... or unsuccessful, depending on how you look at it.

In other words, Axel found the single youngest, laziest, most annoying, silliest Nobody anyone had ever met--Demyx. If Axel had retained control of most of his emotions after losing his heart, Demyx probably kept control over all of them. Though he irritated the older members, I liked Demyx--we all need a little bit of comedy in our lives, after all, or we'd all be like Saix or Xemnas.

Not long afterward, another member was discovered--Luxord, a former big-time gambler, had somehow become a Nobody, and was found wandering through Twilight Town, apparently looking for the casino he was in before losing his heart.

It took a while to convince him to stay with us, as he only truly cared about gambling, but eventually we were able to get him in as our tenth member. As he wasn't particularly powerful, Luxord was the first member I was able to spar against without the risk of being seriously wounded, but otherwise he wasn't much of a help to the Organization.

Speaking of Luxord, he was the one who decided that we go back to Castle Oblivion and fix the place up. It was also his idea to put in those silly rooms that replay sections of the memories of whoever enters, and those ridiculous cards that are used to open up the doors to them. Though Luxord didn't help much in cleaning the place up, Axel and Demyx (surprisingly) did a good job of it, burning away insects and washing out the dust and grime that had built up over the years. It took about a year, but eventually Castle Oblivion was fit for living in again, and part of the Organization moved in, making it our secondary base.

I was one of that group, along with Vexen and Lexaeus--the only two older members to come along with me. Axel also came, as well as new member who we had recently discovered--Marluxia. Though he got along fairly well with everyone, we all suspected that Marluxia was up to something--especially when he visited Xemnas personally to request ownership of Castle Oblivion. Xemnas gave this to him, but he became very suspicious of Marluxia afterward.

Marluxia's plan to take over was no surprise--pretty much everyone knew about it within a year of his joining the Organization. Though Marluxia was powerful, he would be no match for Lexaeus and Axel fighting together. Later in that year, another member joined--the first female member, and also the first one shorter than I was, Larxene. She and Marluxia seemed to get along fairly well, so it was no surprise when it turned out that they were both planning to take over.

A year passed with no new members, and the only major news was that Marluxia had redecorated Castle Oblivion with a very flowery theme, much to the dismay of everyone else who had to live there (except Larxene, who was pretty much indifferent to the whole ordeal). It was only a last-minute intervention from the Superior himself that prevented Castle Oblivion from being painted pink--which surely would've been a fate worse than death for anyone living there, other than Marluxia.

Early on in the next year, we discovered a small girl who called herself Naminé. Since she didn't seem to have any parents, we decided to take her to Castle Oblivion and care for her ourselves. Though she seemed almost like a Nobody, it was hard to tell, and she didn't seem to have the same types of powers that the rest of the Organization had. Even now, I don't know the true origins of Naminé; that may be one of the last secrets of the Nobodies to reveal itself.

A few months later, Axel met a young boy during one of his trips to Twilight Town, and soon discovered that the boy was a Nobody--he instinctively summoned two Keyblades when Axel approached. Axel was able to calm the boy down, and the two soon became good friends--with the boy, Roxas, eventually joining the Organization as its thirteenth, and final, member.

It wasn't long after that before the Castle Oblivion incident began. Two boys, one wielding a Keyblade and the other fighting with the Soul Eater sword and using the power of Darkness, arrived at Castle Oblivion; the Keyblade-wielder was led to the castle by Xemnas as bait for Marluxia--he knew that Marluxia, having access to Naminé's memory-controlling powers, would attempt to gain control of the Keyblade-wielder--while the Darkness-user somehow managed to appear in the basement not long afterward.

We should have never bothered with the two boys.

Thanks to them, we've lost Larxene, Marluxia, Vexen, and even Lexaeus. And because I made the mistake of being involved, I was crippled, forced into this powerless life as a shadow.

If it wasn't for those two boys, Naminé would have never been kidnapped by that fool DiZ and forced into his plans. Roxas would still be himself right now, free to live as his own being rather than forced to become nothing more than a part of that Keyblade-wielding boy Sora. Riku, perhaps, would have learned to accept the Darkness on his own... and Lexaeus wouldn't have had to die.

But no matter how much I learn from my own mistakes, and those of others, I'll never be able to change the past.


	4. Misconceptions

**Author's Note:** This is kind of a "silly" chapter, compared to the others so far anyway. Most of the misconceptions Zexion talks about are actually "inspired" by similar misconceptions in the crowd of KH fans, heh heh.

None of the _really_ silly stuff is included, because I doubt that very many fangirls actually exist in the KH universe (and those that do are probably afraid to say certain things for fear of that character coming and beating the shit out of them!), but still.

* * *

**Misconceptions**

If you ever have the chance to drift throughout the worlds as a ripple in existence, invisible to all but able to see, hear, and smell everything... believe me, you wouldn't like it as much as you think you would.

First of all, some of the things you hear are almost disturbing, especially if people are talking about you as if you weren't right there listening.

It's now a commonly accepted "fact," throughout the Light worlds at least, that Nobodies are completely emotionless. According to these people, anything that seems like a real show of emotion (regardless of which one) is actually a fake... in other words, they think we're _pretending_ to show some emotions.

If only it were that simple. I've wished I was emotionless before--that way I wouldn't be stuck with the problem of feeling emotions but not knowing exactly how to express them. The problem of looking into the mirror and seeing nothing but my plain old expressionless face, when on the inside I'm feeling something else. No, I'm not emotionless--not even Xemnas is truly emotionless.

It's more like a loss of control. If you feel happy, your face changes and looks happier. If you feel sad, or angry, or embarrassed, your face changes as well. It's not quite like that for us. Sometimes, our faces and voices react to emotions the way they're supposed to. Other times, something just doesn't fit together, and we're unable to show emotions the right way. I compare it to opening a door--if the door locks from the inside, you're like a normal being. You can unlock the door from inside and everyone can see that you want to come out of the door. But for a Nobody, not all of the doors open from the inside.

That's why Axel misses Roxas. That's why I wish Lexaeus, and even Vexen, were still alive. That's why Marluxia and Larxene got along, and even why Xemnas and Saix got along with each other even when nobody else did. That's why Xigbar tolerates Demyx instead of shooting him in the head, and why Xaldin feels the need to hang around with a group at all.

Because when your door doesn't open from the inside and you're locked in, you need someone else's help to get out. Even Axel's doors begin to close when he's seperated from Roxas and his other friends for too long, and he has better control than just about anyone else in the Organization.

Anyone can fake a smile, or yell out a battle cry with no real anger behind it, but that's like climbing out the window. It just isn't the same--and you can tell. No matter how much anger Xemnas may have, or how hard Xigbar wants to laugh at Sora, they can't make it seem real if they need to climb out the window to get there.

* * *

Another common misconception floating around is that Axel and Roxas are, how should I say this... "close." Not in a friend way, but, more like in the way Saix and Larxene are... or were, anyway, before Larxene died. Yes, _that_ kind of close.

I shouldn't even have to say anything about this one, especially after explaining how emotions work with Nobodies, but it's such a common idea that I feel obligated to say something--if for no other reason than to protect Axel's dignity. I've known Axel ever since he first joined the Organization, and there is one thing you must know about Axel--he's not a pedophile. If there's anyone you'd have to worry about doing things with underage teenagers, it'd be Demyx, and he likes girls, so even he wouldn't be doing anything like that with Roxas.

Actually, I'd better clear things up about the other members' sexual orientations while I'm on the subject, because I'm sure those kinds of rumors will come up again in a group that's made up of twelve men and only one woman. First of all, I have no problem with people who happen to be homosexual or bisexual--they're born that way, after all. They can't change the way they are any more than I can change the fact that I'm short.

However, the only member of the Organization who actually is gay is Marluxia. But honestly, you'd have to be a complete idiot to not notice that. He uses hairspray and women's deodorant, everything he touches seems to turn pink, and he's even put flower petals in his cloak so that when he walks they sprinkle everywhere. Oh, and he was the designer for Castle Oblivion's decorations--yes, the flowery things you see everywhere. Even if he wasn't gay, he'd at least be "metrosexual," which, if you didn't know, is a new word for "straight guy who acts like the stereotypical gay guy."

Now, if you still don't think that he sounds even a little bit gay, you should hear his voice. Believe me, it's very different when he's calm than it is when he's attempting to kill a little kid with a gigantic key, and it's not nearly as deep as you'd expect it to sound.

And of course, him hooking up with the mailman when he's not busy with Organization business kinda gives it away, too.

* * *

And another little bit, about Xemnas this time. While he doesn't have too many misconceptions floating around him, there's one big one--that we all knew exactly what he wanted to do the whole time and agreed with it.

Now, think about that for a second. If we all knew he was just going to absorb Kingdom Hearts into himself and not provide even a single heart to anyone else, would we have supported him? No. The entire purpose of the Organization is to research hearts and find a way to give Nobodies hearts again, so we can become normal people again--why would we sacrifice ten years of work just so our leader can become some all-powerful monstrosity and ditch the rest of us?

Sure, Xemnas is powerful, but not so powerful that the rest of the Organization combined couldn't fight him. It would be a tough fight, but if Xaldin and Lexaeus attacked together, they could probably take out Xemnas without ending up dead. As for Saix, Axel and Marluxia together could probably keep him occupied pretty well, and if those two start having trouble, someone else--possibly Xigbar or Roxas--could jump in and help them out.

Of course, if Xemnas managed to absorb Kingdom Hearts before we had a chance to deal with him, it'd be impossible to any of us to beat him--though, if we teamed up, it might be possible.

Now that I think about it, it probably would've been better to let Marluxia take over... hmm. Maybe Marluxia knew of Xemnas' true plan all along? It's hard to tell now. Perhaps he was never really a traitor to the Organization in the first place...

* * *

And I'll end this thought with one of the biggest misconceptions of all--that Light is good and Darkness is bad. Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that this is nothing but superstitious garbage. It was DiZ's fear of Darkness that started this mess in the first place--you'd have to be insane or idiotic to still believe Darkness is actually evil even though the only reason Darkness has done any damage at all is because one old man was so afraid of it.

It's an endless loop of destruction--as long as someone fears the Darkness, they will inadvertently do something that causes the Darkness to do some damage, which makes more people afraid of the Darkness. DiZ wasn't the first link in the chain, but the one who started it up again after thousands of years of peace--and he certainly won't be the last, as Sora and the other Keyblade-wielders are still unaware of the truth about Light and Darkness.

The same is true of the "Light is good" superstition. Light can be just as destructive as Darkness if it is used in the wrong way--and Sora is leading the worlds down that path at full speed even now, whether he realizes it or not. With Xehanort and the Organization no longer living, there are very few intelligent beings that know how to use the Darkness--meaning that, as the numbers of Heartless continue to decrease, Light will begin to dominate and the delicate balance between the two forces will be thrown off of its axis once again.

It has happened in the past, and it will happen again unless Sora and many others realize their mistake and acknowledge both Light and Darkness as neutral forces. Don't tell me I didn't warn you when the forces of the Light begin to conquer, just as those of Darkness did in the recent past.


	5. Axel

**Axel**

Ah, Axel. The only survivor of the Castle Oblivion incident, and the only member of the Organization to die without being killed by Sora or Riku in one way or another.

Axel was sarcastic sometimes, serious sometimes, and downright silly sometimes. He could blend in with Vexen, Lexaeus, and I almost as well as he did with Demyx and the other younger members, and out of the whole group, Axel was probably the trickiest one.

And that's saying a lot, considering who some of his fellow members are... or were.

Though he was the one responsible for my current state, I don't hold anything against him for it. After all, he wasn't exactly himself at the moment--he was so drunk, it was surprising that he could even speak clearly enough for the Riku Replica to figure out what he was saying at all.

Axel was a good friend, mostly to Roxas but also to many of the other members. Whenever Demyx needed someone to help him play a prank on Vexen, Axel was the first one to volunteer--and he probably enjoyed it just as much as Demyx did.

Whenever I found a group of cockroaches or centipedes that just wouldn't die from the usual cleaning supplies, Axel would burn them right out of their tunnels in the walls.

Axel, after learning to control his powers well, eventually became the cook of the Organization. There was no need for stoves in Castle Oblivion, not as long as Axel was around. He could take whatever food anyone wanted and impale it on the spikes of his chakrams, then surround the weapons in flames and send them flying throughout the room. You didn't even have to worry about catching your food--he was so good at controlling his weapons' paths that he could tilt them just enough to make the food slip off right onto your plate as it passed by.

Saix never trusted him, but in truth Axel was one of the few members who always stayed loyal to the Organization--even when the Superior himself did not. Axel fought off any and all threats to the Organization--first Marluxia and Larxene's plan to take over, and later Xemnas' plan to eliminate the rest of us in order to keep all of Kingdom Hearts all to himself.

But you probably never knew that. Why else would you think Xemnas waited so long, sending the rest of the Organization on trivial missions and luring Sora into battle with them? Xemnas, in his final year of existence, wasn't waiting for Kingdom Hearts to become more powerful--no, he was waiting for the moment when he was the last living member of the Organization. He was using the rest of us all along, and saw nothing wrong with just throwing us away when he had no more use for us. Few--if any--of us realized it until it was too late.

Xehanort never did change, even after becoming a Nobody.


	6. Lexaeus

**Lexaeus**

Lexaeus. He was a great warrior, but also calm and intelligent. Out of all of the Organization, he was the only one who never seemed to lose touch with his sanity--he was, unlike many of us, perfectly balanced.

Balanced between body and mind--though he had gained incredible physical strength through training and eating healthily, he made sure to pay attention to his mental strength as well, solving puzzles and having intelligent conversations when he wasn't busy with Organization work.

Balanced between Light and Darkness--drawing almost equally from the two forces in combat and otherwise. Of all of the thirteen members of the Organization, only Xemnas ever managed to achieve a more focused Twilight state than Lexaeus.

Balanced between sound and silence--Lexaeus always knew when to speak and when not to. He saw no need to be chattering away constantly like many of the younger members.

For the first five years of the Organization's existence, before Axel and the other new members slowly began to appear, Lexaeus was the closest thing I ever had to a friend. And in the following years, we remained fairly close... until the incident at Castle Oblivion, and his untimely death.

Lexaeus knew that Riku would grow far more powerful if he drew his strength from both Light and Darkness as we do, but he never could have expected how much power Riku would gain from the Darkness. What was originally intended to be a simple sparring match to test Riku's skill with Darkness became a fight to the death--but Lexaeus didn't see this until it was too late.

He could have knocked down Riku with a single blow, had he known that the boy had both the intent to kill him and the strength to pull it off. But his mistake was assuming that Riku had the same sense of honor that he did. Lexaeus would never go from simple sparring to brutal attacks in an instant without warning--he always gave his opponents a chance to surrender rather than be killed.

But Riku wasn't like Lexaeus.

Maybe it was the remnants of Xehanort's Heartless, lodged within Riku like a parasite, that drove him to killing the single member of the Organization who was most undeserving of such a death. Or perhaps it was Riku's own evil thoughts, driven into overdrive by his childish fear of the Darkness. But either way, Riku caught Lexaeus unaware, and Lexaeus was defeated.

Nothing ever angered Lexaeus as much as that. Had Riku given him a fair warning that this would be a battle to the death, he would have died peacefully upon his defeat. But the boy didn't know this. He assumed Lexaeus was just another demon out to get him, like a Heartless, or like Xehanort.

Riku's heart was too weak to fight anyone without thinking of them as some sort of monster. He was a coward who had to demonize his enemies, to view them as emotionless and undeserving of life in the first place, before he would be capable of killing them.

So much like Ansem, he preferred to hide behind his own delusions rather than facing the truth and allowing it to make him stronger.

And like Ansem before him, his foolishness ended in destruction for all who crossed his path.


	7. Vexen

**Vexen**

Out of all of the Organization, nobody was quite as serious about his work as Vexen always was. Even before losing his heart at the hands of Xehanort, his entire life revolved around his research.

Years earlier, before I or the younger members had even been born, he had studied under a then-young Ansem at Radiant Garden's research center, and for a number of years afterward, he taught there alongside his former teacher, gladly providing all of his knowledge to the next generation as he steadily grew older.

And later, as he began to progress in age, he retired from teaching and chose instead to begin working alongside Ansem as a researcher of hearts and their mysteries. It was at this point when the pursuit of knowledge became his sole aim in life--he was finished with work, with his deteriorating personal life, and with the outside world. All that mattered to him now was his research...

And the avacados. No matter what length he had to go to acquire them, Vexen always needed his avacados. There were some days where it seemed that Vexen had nothing to eat or drink but a handful of some avacado-derived food and a glass of cold water.

Despite his odd eating habits, Vexen was a worthy addition to our Organization. Without him, we would never have discovered the state of mixed Light and Darkness that came to be known as "Twilight," or that the body itself has the power to contain this force even when the heart is removed, providing Nobodies with their seemingly-unnatural toughness and quick recovery from injuries that would take a normal being weeks or even months to heal.

Without Vexen, the life-support pods and various computers within Castle Oblivion would have taken forever to install, if we would have been able to install them at all. The Proof of Existence room in our primary base, too, would have been difficult to get working without the old scientist, along with many other devices that have been important to the Organization.

And without Vexen, none of us would have ever had the idea--or the scientific ability--to produce a perfectly accurate replica of Riku, all the way down to his Darkness-powered weapon, which eventually resulted in my current state of existence.

Well, everyone makes mistakes.


	8. Castle Oblivion

**Castle Oblivion**

All people, places, things, and events depicted in legends lose some of their detail. It's inevitable--there's no way to touch on every small feature of someone or something, no matter how much you write. Writing, like all means of communication, is doomed to being an incomplete message.

But that's no excuse for the pitiful lack of detail that the tales of the Organization's downfall have whenever Castle Oblivion is spoken of.

If you believed that those stories told the whole picture about our secondary base of operations, you'd get the impression that we lived in some bizarre place filled with nothing more than empty rooms and hallways, and Luxord's memory rooms, connected by an ever-climbing stairwell at both ends. It comes off sounding like a place constructed simply for the purpose of confusing our enemies, like some kind of demented game.

Some forms of the story show brief glimpses into our lives, showing some of the rooms that we spend a lot of our time in when nothing important is happening--Lexaeus' weight-room, one of the castle's two libraries, and one of several of the more casual meeting rooms. But even these show a picture of the castle which is incomplete at best, like the view through a tiny peephole crudely carved in one of the walls.

In truth, Castle Oblivion looks nothing like the way it is described in stories. When Sora and his friends first arrived, the castle was shrouded in illusions, both mine and otherwise, to make its appearance less intimidating. The castle is really more like a double-sided tower, with thirteen floors aboveground and another twelve below, but you'd never guess this based on the image of the place you usually get from the stories.

The description of what the castle's halls look like is considerably more accurate, though there are still things missing here and there. Doors, for example. There are many more doors in the castle than are ever mentioned in any of the stories--it's just that Sora and Riku never entered any of them, ignoring them in favor of the large, intricately-decorated doors leading into the memory rooms.

To be honest, those rooms really were designed to confuse our enemies. Cheap tricks--card or otherwise--were Luxord's thing, after all, and the rooms were his idea in the first place.

But there's much more to the castle than that.

On the first floor, immediately after you enter, there's the lobby, with various doors leading off in different direction. In the middle of each floor are the memory rooms, which also double as supports for the castle's structure--in truth, the "rooms" are only thin hallways, and everything that occurs within just an illusion that the victim is completely overtaken by from the moment they enter.

If we had programmed the rooms just a bit differently, dealing with Sora and Riku would have been effortless.

But then it would be impossible for the rooms to have any other use, and I don't think Xigbar would really want to give up the ability to shoot at things without ever causing any trouble with the locals or running out of ammo. He might start picking _us_ off, if no other "targets" were available for too long.

Also on the first floor is the room that most of us stay in when we don't have anything else to do. It's much larger than the front room, and is located in the very back of the castle, far away from anywhere Sora and Riku ever went.

Actually it isn't that far from the stairs leading up to the next floor, but obviously Sora ignored the halls leading in other directions and rushed up the stairs instead.

On the second floor is Marluxia's "special" greenhouse, where his less-than-legal plants are grown. The doors are locked, of course, with the "special" plants hidden behind a few layers of more common flowers and other plants. Also on this floor, but on the back end of the castle, is the sunroom--it's similar to another greenhouse, but with less plants and more furniture.

The third floor is pretty much empty, consisting of two large, empty rooms at either end of the castle, seperated by hallways and the memory room in the center. We occasionally store things in these rooms, but overall it's not exactly the most exciting floor on the castle.

On the fourth floor, two of our security rooms are located. Here, we can observe the events going on throughout the castle using some of Vexen's devices. In this case, it's an intricate system of security cameras that all connect to the monitors in those rooms.

The fifth floor holds two small rooms that I visit frequently--the janitor's closets. I am the janitor of the castle, after all, and it'd be hard to clean up much of anything without some supplies. Fortunately, nobody else really comes to this floor, so I can leave it as dirty as I want until the next time Xemnas comes by for inspections.

The sixth floor is another commonly-visited one. It's the floor where everyone goes to wash and dry their clothes, which happens very often when you only wear one thing all the time. Besides the occasional sighting of a naked Larxene running throughout the halls, this floor is usually rather boring.

Floor seven is home to two storage rooms, but other than that it's mostly just the same as any other floor.

The eighth floor has another storage room, as well as a room that Axel and Demyx are known to visit often--the arcade. In fact, some of Demyx's visits to the castle were just to play another few games of Donkey Kong, which just happens to be what he was busy doing while everyone else was off getting killed.

Floor number nine has yet another storage room, and it's also one of Luxord's most-visited rooms--it contains a large room devoted solely to an enormous rectangular table, which is usually used for poker and other card games. Luxord and some of the older members can often be found here, with Luxord usually ending up with more money than before thanks to Xigbar or Demyx not being able to catch him cheating in time to stop him.

The tenth floor, smaller than most of the previous ones, is where two of the castle's only public bathrooms are located. I'm not exactly sure how Sora and Riku made it so far without visiting them, but I'm guessing that Xigbar's string of curses after he slipped and fell in one of the memory rooms was somehow related to that.

Speaking of the bathrooms, I'm really not sure why we have a womens' bathroom. After all, there's only Larxene and Naminé here to use it, and I can't remember if it was there when we first got here.

Floor eleven, another smaller floor, is the home of Larxene's favorite library, where she can be found lying around reading various... _disturbing..._ books when she gets bored of tormenting Roxas, Naminé, and pretty much everyone else. Occasionally you'll find the other members here as well, mostly when Larxene _isn't_ here. There is also a large storage room devoted solely to Naminé's sketchpads, since she does go through a lot of them and we can't risk sending Demyx to buy more that often.

Floor twelve is the location of several of the life-support pods that Vexen helped us install, but other than that is pretty plain. As it's very close to the top, it's even smaller than most floors are.

The thirteenth, and final, floor of the castle is where Naminé usually stays, and is also home to a crystal orb which functions as a somewhat limited version of the monitors in our security rooms. While those can be set to show any part of the castle, the crystal orb only shows the lobby of the first floor, so that whoever is present at the time can spot intruders easily.

There's also a large door at the back of the castle, leading off into a strange void of swirling colors where Marluxia keeps his "pet," a unique and very powerful Nobody which he calls "Spectre." Though Marluxia will occasionally go in, everyone else pretty much avoids that room, since the Spectre might not react well to someone it doesn't know entering suddenly.

Who knows what it _eats,_ after all. Marluxia might be feeding it Dusks when he goes in there... and we'd probably taste similar to those.


	9. Castle Oblivion: Part 2

**Castle Oblivion, Part 2**

Though the contents of the upper floors aren't widely known outside of the Organization, the lower floors are often ignored to the point where many people would have forgotten they ever existed, if not for the existence of Riku.

And of course, Riku's story of the basements is a very incomplete account, as it seems the silver-haired boy has a habit of forgetting that doors exist just because he didn't go into them. He missed most of the more important rooms throughout the basements, and completely ignored each member's personal rooms, including one for most of the members who don't usually stay at Castle Oblivion--they need somewhere to stay on the rare occasion that they _do_ visit, after all.

The first level of the basement is a floor that many of us spend a lot of time on--the kitchen, as well as an enormous room that resembles some sort of cafeteria, are located here. Based on the size of it, it can be assumed that, in some point in the past, the population of Castle Oblivion was much larger than it currently is--possibly housing hundreds or even thousands.

On the second level are the rooms belonging to Roxas and Marluxia, as well as two storage rooms. Though you'd probably get the impression that Marluxia stays at the top floor most of the time if you believed everything that the stories said, he actually went through almost every floor of the castle on a regular basis, replacing those silly flower decorations whenever someone broke one.

And with the way Sora and Riku went through, it's surprising that neither of them met Marluxia during their ascent of the castle's floors--it was almost like they were purposely breaking every one of the little glass flowers that they saw.

Basement three is where Xaldin's and Xigbar's rooms are located, though Xaldin is rarely seen at Castle Oblivion and Xigbar's visits are usually short and for very unimportant reasons--usually because he was bored and wanted to shoot something in the memory rooms. Xaldin has another room here, which he usually keeps locked up and visits a few times every month or so. I'm not sure exactly what's in there--it's probably not important enough to bother with, really.

There's also a room where Xigbar has various targets set up in case there's ever a time when he can't use the memory rooms. Of course, Xigbar himself didn't set the room up--I did, after being unlucky enough to run into Xigbar in an empty hallway when he had an itchy trigger finger and nothing else to do. He wasn't actually aiming _at_ me, of course, but I didn't know that until half an hour later when he finally ran out of ammunition and I ran out of breath.

The fourth floor down is where Vexen's personal room is, though he spends much more of his time in his lab further down. There's also the sickbay, which usually ends up being the room where the drinkers of the Organization (especially Demyx) go to throw up when they're no longer able to walk well enough to get all the way up to the bathrooms.

Because of that, it's not exactly the first room I'd go to if I actually had some injury or sickness... though that is what it was originally meant for.

Marluxia has a small storage room on this floor where he keeps the money he's gained from selling those "special plants" that he likes so much. It's usually locked, for obvious reasons.

Demyx has a room here as well, filled with aquariums. The fish aren't exactly in good condition, thanks to Demyx often forgetting to feed them or clean the tanks, but thanks to some "help" from Vexen, most of them are still alive (hideously mutated, also thanks to Vexen, but still alive).

Basement level five is where Lexaeus' personal room can be found, as well as the poorly-lit meeting room that Vexen, Lexaeus, and I used when attempting to deal with Riku. There are also two unused rooms, left over from Castle Oblivion's original occupants.

The sixth basement level is pretty boring, containing more unused rooms as well as two more large meeting rooms. I'm not sure why we didn't use one of these two rooms, as they're much more well-lit than the one on Basement Five--I guess we wanted to stay as far up in the castle as possible, in case Riku decided to go into one of the smaller doors instead of directly into the memory rooms.

The seventh floor down is usually abandoned, for various reasons. First of all, Saix's room is located here, and none of the rest of us (except for, of course, Larxene) really want to go there. Second of all, nobody really wants to spend a lot of time on a floor where Saix might be wandering about--you _really_ don't want to piss off Saix. Or meet him when he's bored--he's picked up a few of Larxene's more disturbing habits over the years.

The eighth basement is a floor that I frequently visit--my room is located here. There's also Axel's room, and a special room that Axel hangs out in which is more flame-resistant than most parts of the castle.

Also located on this floor is a room that Vexen set up, with several computers. Thanks to some of Vexen's additions, these computers can be used to communicate over long distances as well as accessing information from other computers that Vexen has modifying in this way.

Basement nine is the home of the lower library, which Larxene visits when she's too lazy to walk (or teleport) all the way up to the one in the aboveground part of the castle. Demyx's and Larxene's rooms are located here, which often results in Demyx being the hormone-flooded teenager that he is and trying to peek into Larxene's room when she's changing. This usually results in an extremely angry Larxene and an extremely scared Demyx running for his life.

There's also two soundproof rooms where Demyx goes to practice playing his sitar. Soundproof, of course, because Demyx tends to do most of his sitar practice at night, and no matter how silly he may be, we don't want Larxene to kill him after he wakes her up at two in the morning for the seventh day in a row.

Basement ten is where Luxord's room is located, though he rarely visits Castle Oblivion except to bring us a new batch of those ridiculous cards that the memory rooms use. It's also home to Luxord's mini-casino, which is usually where he can be found when he's not busy trying to convince us that the cards weren't really such a bad idea.

There's also a room with several hot tubs, and an indoor tennis court. Yes, a tennis court--I'm much better at that than I am at fighting, and there's not many other rooms in the castle where I'd actually have a chance against someone like Marluxia or Axel.

The eleventh basement is where the saunas are located--one superheated to ridiculously high temperatures for Axel, and another one for everyone else. This is also the floor where Marluxia stores his "special" plants after they've been... "prepared for sale." There's also a large gymnasium, which was originally just an empty room but was rebuilt by Lexaeus at some point to make it more useful.

The twelfth basement, located at the very bottom of the castle, is where Vexen's laboratory is located, as well as Lexaeus' gym. There's also a room I spend a lot of my time in, devoted to various puzzles and things like that. Near Vexen's lab is a large storage room, where most of Vexen's supplies end up eventually, as well as another storeroom for other things.

In place of stairs leading down, there's a gaping hole in the floor that has been boarded up at some point, either by Vexen or by whoever originally lived here in the past. None of us are quite sure what's underneath it, and apparently nobody really cares enough to bother checking.

...I'll have to go back there and see what's down there someday.


	10. Saix

**Author's Note:** Saix's original name, Sia, is not official in any way--that's just what I'm using as his original name in here. It's pronounced about like "shah"--or maybe "syah" as one syllable. Not "see-ah" or anything like that.

* * *

**Saix**

To put it simply, Saix was scary.

Why so much simplicity on the subject? Well, for one thing, Saix has mental disorders that most scientists haven't even given _names_ to yet; and the fact that he's a Nobody--so parts of his mind are already a little off to begin with--just makes it worse.

Once, Vexen tried to study the inner workings of Saix's mind--never before, and never since then, have I _ever_ seen Vexen _give up_ on one of his experiments.

And unfortunately, Saix's mental state was partially our fault to begin with. In the early days of the Organization, none of us ever suspected that we were not alone in the world. We assumed that the six of us had been the only ones to survive the process of becoming a Nobody with our sanity and capability for rational thought intact--all others, we thought, had reverted to a primitive fish-like or even insect-like state of mind.

But we were wrong. As we later discovered, Braig's brother Sia had visited the research center several years after his brother's disappearance, and during his exploration he too was caught and killed by the Heartless. He arrived on the Twilight World in the depths of the wilderness, far away from either Castle Oblivion or Twilight Town--or any inhabited place. The area he had arrived in was filled with Dusks, which had attacked or scared away the normal animals and destroyed much of the area's plant life.

Sia's Nobody, who would later come to be called Saix after he was introduced to the Organization's renaming traditions, was alone in the wasteland. We're not sure what happened after that--Saix no longer remembers it, and even if he did it would be unlikely for him to tell anyone, except possibly Xemnas or Larxene. They're the only two he really trusts, after all--Xemnas because he was the one who saved Saix's life, and Larxene for... _other_ reasons.

When we first found Saix, he was collapsed in a heap with a circle of defeated Heartless and Nobodies around him, most of which had been sliced in two by one last swing of his sword. He had somehow found his way from the wilderness of the Twilight World all the way to the outskirts of The World That Never Was--with no help from anyone else, he had learned to summon his weapon, use the basic levels of his powers, and even open the way to the Dark Passage on his own.

It's hard to tell what Saix would have been if we had found him earlier--if we had prevented him from collapsing into a coma from exhaustion. It's easy to tell that Saix was intelligent--even now, his intelligence peeks through the cloud of insanity in his calmer moments.

I guess it doesn't matter now, who Saix would have been if he had stayed mentally stable. Only Xigbar knows for sure--Saix is his younger brother, after all, so they would have known each other well in their younger years.

But Xigbar's not talking. He's never one to dwell on the past, I guess--the most you ever hear of the past from Xigbar is an offhand mention of the war he fought in in his youth, or an occasional reference to the early years of the Organization. But never anything about his brother, his family, or anything about his personal life.

Saix stayed loyal to Xemnas to the end, but even then he failed to see through his own insanity and realize that his Superior was setting him up to die, only to take the whole of Kingdom Hearts for himself. Xemnas never intended for Saix to gain a heart along with him.

He never intended for _any_ of us to gain a heart, or to outlive him.

But nobody can predict the future.


	11. Incompletes

**Author's Note:** Holy crap, over 1000 hits now. Never thought I'd see that one, especially not within... what, a week? ...of posting the first chapter. Wow.

Well, I guess my sister was right: Everybody loves Zexy. Heh heh...

* * *

**"Incompletes"**

That's what I've decided to call the group of beings I've encountered in my travels, of course. The group includes not only the well-known Heartless and Nobodies, but also a variety of other beings which I haven't yet thought up a good name for--including those in my own current state.

There are the Heartless, of course--the first were the result of badly-planned experiments with Darkness, extracting a heart and amplifying the Darkness within it to levels that would never be found naturally. After that, no more experiments were needed--that single Heartless, alone, was capable of becoming ten of them within a month just by attacking the prisoners in the dungeon; it was over a hundred before two months had passed, and the number just kept growing at that rate until most of Radiant Garden's population had been wiped out.

The Heartless, unlike Nobodies, truly are emotionless--and mindless--creatures. Throughout known history, there have only been two Heartless who retained anything resembling real emotions or intelligence--the first, of course, was Xehanort, and the second being Sora.

I haven't yet discovered the exact reason for Sora keeping his original form--apparently he had regressed to the basic Shadow's form at one point, but somehow regained his original shape later. This is a puzzle that even I haven't been able to figure out--restoring a Heartless' intelligence is utterly impossible, but could someone be able to restore their appearance if they managed to keep emotions and intelligence, but not form? It's one of the most confusing things I've encountered.

Even more confusing is the fact that Sora, while a Heartless, still drew power from the Light rather than the Darkness--yet he remained a Heartless. Perhaps intelligent Heartless are free to choose between Light and Darkness, or there is something strange at work here...

Most of Heartless behavior seems to be instinctual, showing no true intelligence whatsoever--like the actions of an insect. When left to themselves, Heartless will relentlessly seek hearts of all types--regardless of species. They will also gravitate toward the oversized hearts located within each of the fragmented planetoids of the World of Light, utterly destroying most of the world if enough of them succeed in reaching it.

When being controlled by a powerful Darkness-user, however, the Heartless can be made to act intelligently--but do not be fooled by this. The supposed intelligence displayed by controlled Heartless comes entirely from the controller, not the Heartless themselves--this is why most who can control Heartless at all stick to simple commands, such as "attack them" or "get that." More complicated commands will usually fail to register at all, or--in a worst-case scenario--cause them to attack the Darkness-user instead of following their commands. For this, and various other reasons, it's not reccommended to attempt to control Heartless if you have a heart at all, no matter how powerful you are with Darkness--though the Heartless draw their power from the Darkness, they cannot be molded and commanded in the way that the non-living force of Darkness can, and attempts to do so may be extremely hazardous to your health.

Nobodies, on the other hand, are very different from Heartless. Though their basic forms--Dusks and so on--lose their intelligence in a way similar to Heartless, their emotions remain (at least partially) intact. However, having emotions without intelligence doesn't work, resulting in the Nobodies becoming so horribly insane that, in comparison, Saix looks perfectly normal.

While Heartless attack out of an insect-like urge to feed and reproduce, Nobodies attack because they don't know what else to do. Their perception of the world is bizarre, looking like something from another dimension where the laws of physics as we know them simply don't exist. That's the reason why the Dusks move the way they do--because, from their point of view, the world is shifting constantly, and they have to move in the opposite direction to keep from falling over into the endless void around them.

Normal beings appear, to them, as monsters reaching up out of the void to drag them in--so they do what anyone would do: defend themselves, regardless of whether there is any actual threat or not. Other Nobodies, including the Organization members, appear normally (or at least as close to "normal" as a basic Nobody's view of the world ever gets).

That's why the Organization XIII has the ability to command various Nobodies--they see us, and hear us, normally in a world where nothing else is normal. Our presence makes them calm down, whereas that of normal beings--or Heartless--makes them become frightened or angry. Most of us have one specific type that we control better than others, mainly because our weapons and theirs match up--essentially, they find one member more familiar than the rest and are more likely to follow their orders than those of the rest. Xemnas' commands are recognized by all Nobodies, probably because he's the most powerful of the Organization, or maybe because he has been a Nobody longer than any of us.

But there's more to the "incompletes" than simple Heartless and Nobodies. Perhaps hundreds of different types of incomplete beings exist; I've only encountered two more in addition to those that are already commonly-known, but it's difficult to tell if those two are the only others or just the beginning of an even larger group.

The first of the two incomplete beings that I've encountered is the one that I have become myself--a being stripped of its body, existing as a being of pure energy. My current state is that of pure Twilight energy, only alive because my soul was left intact when my body was destroyed. I am invisible, insubstantial, unable to be heard or felt by anyone; yet able to see and hear everything around me. Food, water, air, and even sleep are completely unnecessary; at times it seems that I'm more dead than alive.

It seems that the Proof of Existence room at the main base simply couldn't handle my current state--it overloaded and broke down, destroying the display of my weapon and losing the ability to display whether I was alive or dead. About the only thing left intact on the device was my title in the Organization; occasionally it shows flickers of red or blue, but most of the time it remains gray and colorless.

Though I've retained my ability to "smell" the presence of others from a distance, my other powers seem to be completely non-functional--any attempt to use them only results in a kind of pain that I've never experienced before, which simply can't be described in terms that someone with a physical body could understand. It seems that a Nobody requires a body to channel energy through to be able to use their powers at all.

Should I count myself as utterly powerless, or invincible? It seems I've become both.

Either way, I've said enough about my current state. It's time to move on to the fourth, and perhaps most disturbing, of all the incomplete beings.

I have discovered, in my travels throughout the many worlds, a type of creatures unlike anything we had expected in the past--creatures composed entirely of Light, acting similarly to Heartless but with hive-mind behavior that gives them the potential to be almost immeasurably more dangerous than either the Heartless or Nobodies ever were.

Perhaps even more dangerous than both of the previous threats combined.

Though they seem to exist only in small amounts now, their numbers seem to be increasing--and unlike Heartless and Nobodies, I cannot determine what causes them to spring forth into existence. Whatever the cause, I can assure you that it is entirely unrelated to either Heartless or Nobodies--the rate at which those two beings' populations are decreasing is much faster than the growth rate of these new creatures.

Most of them have white or other pale-colored skin, with insectoid bodies that are very simple in weaker specimens but grow steadily more complex in stronger varieties. Most of them have at least three eyes, and their bodies usually have tentacles of some type sprouting from them in various places. They have no mark symbolizing them anywhere on their body, but their presence is given away by the pale glow that surrounds everything they touch, including their footprints.

They destroy Heartless on sight, and seem to disturb Nobodies just as much as their Darkness-based cousins do. I haven't seen their reaction to normal beings yet, as the worlds they exist on seem to be mostly uninhabitable ones, but fortunately, they don't appear to be able to detect my presence at all.

If only Vexen were still here. He would have had an entire catalog of the creatures set up on one of his computers by now, if he had only seen them.

I must study these creatures more carefully, and attempt to warn the inhabited worlds of their presence... before it's too late.


	12. Marluxia

**Marluxia**

I once considered him the greatest threat to the Organization, a traitor, who wished to overthrow its Superior and rise as the group's new leader.

Xemnas himself suspected Marluxia of something ever since he joined, and planted four of his most trusted followers--Vexen, Lexaeus, Axel, and I--in Castle Oblivion in order to watch over him and his fellow newcomer Larxene.

We plotted against him, trying to counter his plan to gain control of Sora by attempting to bring Riku to our side, using his power of Darkness to counteract Sora's Light and prevent Marluxia from taking over.

But now I'm not so sure. After seeing what Xemnas was truly planning for us all along, ever since he discovered Kingdom Hearts, I have to wonder. Did Marluxia, the scythe-wielding newcomer to the Organization who soon became the owner of Castle Oblivion, plan to overthrow the Organization, or to save it?

If only I could have been able to read memories, like Naminé could. Perhaps then I would have seen Marluxia's true intentions, rather than blindly following the words of Xemnas without ever considering that our "traitor" may have been seeking our freedom, rather than more power for himself.

Marluxia was only in the Organization two years before his death, rising in rank quickly but always being closely watched by his elders. He was a strong fighter, capable of dealing blows with his scythe that could almost match those of Saix or Lexaeus--his only disadvantage, battle-wise, was a lack of speed. Despite the inherent ridiculousness of them, his powers were also dangerous--it sounded like some sort of sick joke, but in Marluxia's hands, flowers and other plants could actually become powerful weapons.

It's kind of funny how the only member of the Organization who never had even the slightest interest in Larxene sexually also ended up being one of the girl's only close friends out of the entire group. She never tormented Marluxia like she did almost everyone else--a few sarcastic comments about his choice of decorations occasionally, but still nothing compared to how she treated Naminé, Demyx, or I.

She always picked the weaker members, of course. Fortunately, Marluxia usually kept her busy with his plans--it was her idea to take advantage of Naminé's powers to try and manipulate Sora, and if Axel had not been involved, that plan would have almost definitely succeeded.

Though Marluxia often hid it away when he was focused on serious matters, he was one of the most sensitive and understanding members as well. If not for the misunderstanding over his plan to dethrone Xemnas, Lexaeus and I would have certainly been able to get along with him very well. He was fairly intelligent--not exceptionally so, but more than enough to keep you from feeling like you were talking to a moron--and had decent manners, unlike many of the younger members.

Like me, Marluxia could fit in just as well with the older members as he did with the younger ones. Except for Vexen, of course--personal hygeine was never one of Vexen's highest priorities, and Marluxia's constant suggestions of new conditioners or shampoos for his rarely-washed hair would have annoyed him. Vexen also didn't like the flowery decorations that Marluxia put everywhere--he often used them to store strange chemicals that he had mixed up in his lab, just because he saw them as less deserving of being clean than his own test tubes were.

I often wonder what the Organization would have been like if Marluxia had succeeded in his plans to take over. Would we have survived longer? Would Sora and Riku still be after us, trying to wipe us out simply because a crazy old man told them to, even though we, without Xemnas, are no threat to anyone?

I can only think of one thing that would be worse without Xemnas, and I'm sure I could endure the pink walls well enough to make up for it.


	13. Demyx

**Demyx**

Who could forget Demyx? Though he was never the most reliable member of the Organization when missions were concerned, he was by far the silliest member. He was the one who made sure that none of us forgot how to laugh.

Though most of the older members looked down on Demyx, I liked him. He disliked fighting, and was generally pretty lazy, but that didn't matter. Demyx wasn't important for his combat skills or ability to go through with missions, but because he provided the Organization with comic relief.

Before Demyx, most of the Organization were serious people. Though I had my moments of sillyness, and Axel could be extremely sarcastic and a bit goofy when he wanted to be, Demyx was different. He wasn't someone serious who could be a joker when he felt like it--he was a joker who usually wasn't serious even when he was trying to be serious.

Of course, he wasn't really as weak as everyone thought. He was at a disadvantage in battle, sure--his weapon wasn't really even a _weapon_, for one thing, and it's difficult to win a battle when you're as easily-distracted as Demyx usually was. But the reason for his lack of combat skill wasn't that he or his powers were truly weak, but because he had never developed his full potential.

Demyx showed quite a bit of potential, and it's possible that he may have reached a level of power near Axel's if he had achieved the same mastery of his powers that most of the Organization had. But, due to his laziness, that never happened. Regardless of his lack of training, Demyx's power occasionally shines through, especially when he creates clones of himself from water and controls them. Though this technique is anything but focused--it seems almost random in nature, at times--it can be incredibly powerful if his opponents are unable to defeat the water clones quickly. Though Demyx is unable to control his powers enough to use the attack to its full potential, it is perfectly capable of suffocating his opponent in water, killing them within seconds, if they don't take the attack seriously.

It's about the only thing you _can_ take seriously about Demyx, actually.

Even his origin seems funny--when we found him, he was living in Twilight Town, where he earned some money playing his sitar and singing songs about prostitutes, bodily functions, and other rather immature subjects for a song to be written about. The kids in Twilight Town loved it, of course, and he always walked away with a least a few hundred munny if he had a decent crowd.

Axel, who first met him after sitting in with one of his crowds of fans one day, actually had a hard time convincing him to join--and why not? Demyx had a good life. He was the only one of us who, even without other Nobodies to keep him company, was able to keep all of his "doors" wide open. Nothing insulted him more than being called emotionless--few things, other than that, could anger him enough to provoke him into battle.

And that was the very thing that ended his existence.

Sora, by this time deep in the clutches of the same racism which had festered within DiZ for ten years, refused to show Demyx any respect. Demyx saw Sora as another form of Roxas--a strange, unfamiliar, immature Roxas who couldn't remember his past with the Organization--not an enemy. At their first meeting, he attacked out of fear--why was Roxas attacking him, and who were his two new friends? He didn't fight to his full potential, but that's because his intention wasn't to kill Sora, Donald, and Goofy--it was just to distract them long enough for him to escape.

Demyx didn't deserve to be viciously insulted, treated like some kind of emotionless monster, and then finally beaten to death. I may have been wrong before when I claimed that Lexaeus was the one member least deserving of his death--he, at least, had been the one who started the battle that ended up killing him.

Demyx didn't even do that. He attempted to talk to the person who he thought was Roxas, to bring out the memories of Roxas that should have been imbedded somewhere deep within Sora. He treated Sora with more respect than the pitiful child ever deserved, but recieved nothing in return.

Sora wasn't Roxas. No, Sora could never measure up to Roxas. Roxas realized that it wasn't _what_ someone was that mattered, but _who_ they were. He didn't have any concept of discrimination--complete beings, intelligent Nobodies, and even intelligent Heartless were the same to him. All deserved respect, and all could be good--or evil.

The only place Sora ever rose above Roxas was in combat, and Roxas himself was the very reason this was possible. DiZ, in his mad rush to destroy everything related to the Nobodies that he inadvertantly created, somehow managed to commit an even worse atrocity than anything he had done before.

He stripped the free will from two intelligent Nobodies, both just as deserving of life and respect as himself or any other complete being.

He destroyed two lives, and for what reason? Nothing but revenge, and the senseless racism that had replaced his fear of Darkness as his primary motivator for foolish acts.

He manipulated Naminé into believing that she and Roxas would remain themselves after being re-combined into Kairi and Sora. He took that innocent little girl, captured her and dragged her away from her home, and used her as nothing more than a tool to prepare Roxas for the re-combination process. To remove all memory of his friends, his powers, and the Organization as a whole, so that he could be re-inserted into Sora's being without fear of his personality becoming the dominant one.

He manipulated Riku, using him to capture Roxas--the old coward had no problem with kidnapping helpless little girls on his own, but when any danger presented itself, he had to hide behind his minions.

So much like Xemnas... except that Xemnas was no coward. He didn't fear Sora, as DiZ feared Roxas--he was using Sora to eliminate his fellow Organization members and pave the way for his plan's completion. No, even Xemnas deserves some respect--more respect than DiZ, at the very least.

DiZ deserves nothing but shame. Yet, when the history books are written centuries from now, he will be known only as the great sage-king Ansem, who suddenly disappeared after the Heartless began appearing on his world.

They'll never learn that every story has at least two sides.


	14. Naminé

**Naminé**

Even now, nobody really knows exactly how Naminé is able to exist.

We first found the girl wandering the streets of Twilight Town, confused and apparently suffering from amnesia. I was immediately reminded of the state in which Ansem first found Xehanort. Though I had not yet joined the research team at the time, I had heard about it from the older members--Vexen, especially, remembered it clearly, as he had been there with Ansem when Xehanort was first discovered.

He was found wandering in the streets, only half-awake, wearing strange clothes that didn't resemble anything we had ever seen in Radiant Garden. We never managed to find a way to restore any memory of his past, no matter what we tried--it seemed as if something beyond anything we were capable of had permanently wiped his memory, though we were afraid to admit it.

Naminé was the same way. No matter what we tried, she never remembered anything--not even her name. Apparently, one of the townspeople who had been taking care of her earlier had named her "Naminé," so we decided to call her that as well.

At first, we had no idea that she was a Nobody--she seemed, as far as anyone could tell, to be nothing more than a normal little girl. A mentally-scarred, amnesiac little girl, who never talked to anyone (at least not at first), but still just a little girl. It was later when we discovered her powers--her ability to see, and alter, the memories of others.

We first discovered this power when we noticed that no matter what we did, Naminé never asked us where we had been, where we were going, or anything of that sort. Demyx, surprisingly, was the one who first discovered this--after he managed to make her laugh one day, he was also able to get her to talk more than she had before. He found out that the reason she never talked was simple--she already knew what everyone was thinking, why they were in the room, and where they were planning on going next.

She didn't talk because she didn't need to ask questions--she could find out the answers on her own.

Soon after this, we discovered her other great talent--art. She could draw an almost-perfect replica of anyone--or anything--within a few minutes at the most. Her room at Castle Oblivion was covered in pictures she had drawn--pictures of the Organization members, pictures of Twilight Town, pictures of the castle she currently lived in... but more than anything, she drew pictures of things she saw in her dreams.

She drew Heartless, hundreds of them, crawling on the stairs of Castle Oblivion. Except they _weren't_ Castle Oblivion's stairs--they were an endless spiral, going forever upward, with no walls or floors around them, floating in the middle of a black void.

She drew strange patterns, unknown symbols and letters in languages that none of us could understand. Letters that seemed to be written in gold, on white cloth with no other markings anywhere on it. Symbols written in black, white, and gray, tinged with hints of many other colors, swirling around each other endlessly like a whirlpool, with Heartless and other strange creatures attempting to step into it but always being pulled to their destruction instead.

She drew each of our weapons, having never seen them before, and didn't miss a single detail. She even captured the tiny differences between each of Xaldin's spears, differences so small that they cannot even be noticed from a distance of more than ten feet.

She drew crowds, both friendly--like those of Twilight Town's kids, waiting around for something to happen--and not. One specific picture came up often--a picture of a crowd of people with torches and various objects, surrounding someone and preparing to kill them. Naminé had strange dreams.

Naminé was always a quiet girl, but this just added to how mysterious she was. She couldn't tell anyone why she existed, or how it was even possible, because she couldn't even remember the person she was before she was Naminé. Unlike the rest of us, she had no memory of who she was before becoming a Nobody.

But it wasn't long after Naminé's appearance that someone who had more in common with her than the rest of us would appear--Roxas. He, too, was lacking any memory of his former self. Like Naminé before him, Roxas was found wandering aimlessly in Twilight Town. Unlike Naminé, he had not been taken in by one of the townsfolk--he had chosen a life on the streets instead, somehow knowing that he would not have much in common with the other people there. At night--or at least, the closest thing to "night" that Twilight Town ever has--he slept in an abandoned house, but during the day he was required to search for food, money, and other important supplies.

Somehow, he found friends there anyway. Before Axel had discovered him, he met a group of kids--likely the same kids who had been entertained by Demyx's songs years earlier. He did not yet suspect that he was anything but a normal person at this time--he hadn't yet learned to summon his Keyblades, and he never did learn how to use his other powers.

He lived in Twilight Town for more than a week before Axel first found him. Roxas sensed something odd about Axel--he was the first other Nobody that the young boy had ever met--and instinctually summoned his two Keyblades. Axel managed to calm him down and convince him to join the Organization, and suddenly Naminé had someone of her own age to talk to.

Only Roxas, it seemed, could keep all of Naminé's "doors" open for long. Demyx's antics kept her happy, but then other emotions began to fade away and lock up again. Roxas, it seemed, had formed some kind of connection with Naminé that was far stronger than the ones any of the rest of us shared.

But Naminé's happiness did not last long. First, she was caught up in Marluxia's plan to take over--thanks to Larxene's suggestions, she was forced to manipulate Sora in an attempt to sway him to Marluxia's side and help to overthrow Xemnas. It was during this time that Naminé became depressed. Seperated from Roxas and Demyx, and tormented by Larxene, she had nothing left to keep her mood up.

Her pictures became messier in appearance, even rougher-looking than the first sketches she had drawn before meeting Demyx. She began drawing outside the lines, becoming unable to correctly imitate the details of anything she drew, and drawing people horribly out of proportion. It seemed that her drawing ability was somehow affected by her mood, and both were suffering.

Her capture by DiZ soon afterward was no help. Though meeting Sora and Riku gave her a momentary boost in happiness, she quickly fell even further than before in the abandoned mansion DiZ made her stay in. She still drew pictures of her dreams--which now consisted mainly of Roxas, Axel, and other Organization members that she missed--but even these were scribbly and poorly-drawn, only recognizable by colors and other obvious features that were visible even when drawn badly.

Her mood picked up again, temporarily, after Riku began working with DiZ--though she and Riku had little in common, he was at least someone to talk to who showed her a bit more respect than DiZ did. Also unlike DiZ, he saw nothing wrong with occasionally giving a scared little girl a hug.

Riku wasn't _pure_ evil, after all--no one really is.

She thought her life would become somewhat normal again when, later, Riku returned to DiZ's mansion with Roxas in tow. Roxas was unconscious at the time, and Riku was wearing a blindfold--he refused to tell anyone, even DiZ, the reason for this odd change in clothing. Whatever it was, Riku appeared to still be able to see even when "blinded," as he never ran into walls or anything like that. He actually seemed less clumsy with the blindfold on than he was before he began wearing it--Naminé was confused by this.

But Naminé's life was never going to be normal, or anything like it, ever again. DiZ somehow managed to convince her that she needed to wipe Roxas' memory, and she obeyed--regretting it the whole time, and hoping that Roxas would somehow remember her even without any of his other memories.

He didn't, of course. DiZ made sure of that--he wouldn't let Naminé eat anything until she had completely erased Roxas' memories, letting her talk to Roxas for minutes at a time to test his memory for even the slightest bit of remembrance.

It took three days of near-starvation, but Naminé finally gave in and erased the last traces of herself from Roxas' memories. And then Roxas ceased to exist, forced to re-combine with Sora.

Naminé followed months afterward, by then so depressed that she had surrendered to DiZ's plans and allowed him to go through with them. She had even erased her own memories, to a certain point, because DiZ knew that if she retained all of her memories, it would be possible for her to take control and become the dominant personality within Kairi--which would also change Kairi's appearance to that of Naminé. It was the same reason that he forced the girl to erase Roxas' memories--he didn't want even a shred of any Nobody to survive to see the next generation.

He never had any idea that one of them already had.


	15. Xaldin

**Xaldin**

I never really got to know Xaldin very well, despite both of us being among the first six members of the Organization. In our early days, before we became Nobodies, Dilan was always assigned a guard position outside of Ansem's research center--he was the bodyguard of the group, after all.

I, on the other hand, was usually confined deep within the building, cleaning out a hallway after a failed experiment--I was the janitor, of course--or helping the older researchers with something when I had no other work to do. Though I was originally hired as a janitor only, it wasn't long before I became a full-fledged researcher, and my visits to the lab became more and more frequent.

Dilan, however, remained at his post most of the time, only coming further into the building when it was time to lock up the place and go home for the night, or when someone suspicious was seen outside.

And, occasionally, when Ansem decided to stay late, Dilan and I got a rare chance to actually be in the same room for longer than a few seconds. Most of what I know about him comes from those times, and similar times later after the two of us became Nobodies--though I'm not sure exactly how accurate any of it is, given Xaldin's habit of bragging. For all I know, his life story could be something entirely different--or at least less complicated--than what he always said to anyone who asked.

Like Xigbar and Saix, Xaldin was originally an elf before becoming a Nobody. This is one piece of information that can't be ignored as an exaggeration--Xaldin's pointed ears, one of the few physical features that can be used to tell elves apart from humans, are quite visible from the side or from behind.

Dilan grew up in the world of the elves, located somewhere in the far reaches of the World of Light--far from Radiant Garden's world. At a young age, he wandered away from his home, sneaking aboard a cargo ship headed for many strange lands that young Dilan often dreamed about visiting.

But something went wrong. The ship's flight was interrupted somehow, and it crash-landed in a place known as the Land of Dragons.

Dilan was the only survivor of the crash.

Despite the place's name, there were no actual "dragons" to be found there, as far as anyone could tell. But there were humans--and many of them. It was here that Dilan learned the basics of combat, becoming skilled with the sword and especially the spear. Years passed, and Dilan grew older--and began wondering about what had happened to his family, and the friends he had known in his youth.

Dilan traveled across the world, searching for any sign of a spaceship that could take him home, but found nothing but the wreckage of the ship that had gotten him there more than ten years earlier, somehow still in one piece despite the plants that had grown up over it. He cut away the vegetation and entered the ship, making many failed attempts to figure out what was wrong and how to fix it.

One day, he was making his daily journey to the ruined ship when he came upon visitors from another world--not humans, but strange creatures who stood on both legs like a human or elf, but shared some of the physical features of other species.

The apparent leader of the group, a short, mouse-like humanoid who called himself "Mickey," helped Dilan reconstruct the crashed ship to a point where it would still function, and Dilan left his second home behind, never to return until many years later.

He was unable to locate his own world, but instead decided to land on another world--Radiant Garden. This landing was far more successful than the previous one, resulting in neither Dilan or the ship being damaged, and the ship was soon noticed by Ansem and his researchers--at the time, only Braig and Even had joined the team.

Dilan had only a minor level of skill with anything scientific--and in fact, showed very little interest in such things. It wasn't that he was truly unintelligent--he merely didn't care for machines and things like that.

Despite his lack of scientific knowledge, he was a powerful fighter and was good at intimidating people. It was likely that he had gotten a lot of practice in both of these skills throughout his life.

So Ansem gave him his first real job--that of being the bodyguard for the less-powerful members of the research team. He remained in this position for years, and saw the entry of Elaeus and I into the research team. He and Elaeus found a few things in common, and often discussed battle techniques, but otherwise Dilan rarely spoke to any of the researchers.

But that all changed when Xehanort became a Heartless. Dilan heard the commotion going on within the research station, and the psychotic cries of "Darkness!" coming from the main laboratory, and rushed in to see what was going on. He arrived just as Xehanort thrust his hand into Braig's chest, removing the older elf's heart and letting his body fall to the ground and fade away. The heart fluttered away from Xehanort's hand and was suddenly surrounded by a dark blob before transforming into a strange creature.

Xehanort turned to Dilan, flying at him, but was met by the point of a spear--and not long afterward, the presence of the other three researchers in the room. Even and I panicked, not knowing exaclty what had happened--only that Braig had disappeared and Xehanort seemed to have gone insane.

Dilan managed to fight off Xehanort's grip for several minutes before being pinned down, but his strength eventually gave out. Xehanort began babbling incoherently, demanding that we "give our hearts to the Darkness" and join him. Elaeus lept at Xehanort, picking up a lead pipe from the ground and swinging it at the dark-skinned man's head, but he was stopped suddenly when the pipe hit and simply bounced off, leaving nothing more than a light bruise.

It wasn't long after that before all of us had been killed by Xehanort, or at least we thought we were dead at first. Then we woke up, laying in the grass near a strange road that none of us had ever seen before. There was a town in the distance, and if you squinted you could see Castle Oblivion far away on the other horizon.

Xaldin wasn't nearly as quiet as his former self had been. This was probably because of how the emotions of Nobodies worked--he had no need to talk to anyone else when his emotions worked normally, but now he had to just to feel anywhere near normal. It wasn't until Dilan became Xaldin, and the Organization formed, that I really learned anything about his past.

And he couldn't stop bragging about things he had done in the past, it seemed. He always talked about how he had been the strongest warrior in his class back when he was undergoing training in the Land of Dragons, or how he could have fixed the ship himself if he had been given more time. Neither of these were true, I'm sure--though Dilan was certainly strong for a human, it's doubtful that he was the most powerful warrior of all at such a young age, and even now his ability with mechanics and computers is so poor that he once couldn't figure out how to operate the monitors in Castle Oblivion's security rooms.

Of course, he was barely awake at the time, but it was an operation that a more scientific person, like Vexen, could have done in his sleep.

He also claimed that his parents had named him after a famous singer by the same name, but that was obviously false--mainly because the singer lived in Radiant Garden, which Dilan didn't even visit until well into his adulthood, but also because the singer's name was spelled in a completely different way than Xaldin's. There was obviously no connection.

I'm not sure if Xaldin actually believed himself capable of all the things he claimed he could do, or if he was just trying to get some kind of reaction from us the only way he knew how. However, it's probably a little bit of both--there have been quite a few cases in which Xaldin overestimated his own ability during missions, especially those which didn't involve combat. Though he was certainly very skilled both at combat and at intimidation, he believed his own skill to be even greater than it actually had been.

Not surprisingly, this was what got him killed. While on one of Xemnas' pointless missions, Xaldin attempted to trick one of the residents of another world into becoming a Heartless, but his plan failed miserably--he was never one who could keep track of many things at once, and was elbowed in the gut by a weak little girl who he should have been able to fight off--or at least _notice_--before she had the chance to even come close.

He was actually holding her in place at the time, but again, Xaldin was trying to do too many things at once. Holding the girl, intimidating his enemies into giving in, and making sure nobody grabbed the magical rose that he had stolen--it was too much for Xaldin. His skill, when focused on one purpose, was incredible--but when divided among many purposes, it was almost pitiful.

It wasn't long after this that Xaldin ended up in a fight with Sora, and like many fellow Organization members before him, he fought to his full potential but was killed anyway--bringing the plans of both DiZ and Xemnas ever closer to completion.

I never got to know Xaldin very well, but if we ever meet again, perhaps in some other life, I'll have to make up for that.


	16. Worlds

**Author's Note:** And once again, a brief break from Organization members' life stories; and a return to something I'd like to call "Zexion's Weird-Ass Discoveries Which Would Probably Make Sora's Head Explode."

* * *

**Worlds**

Throughout my journeys, I have been fortunate enough to be able to see many different worlds--some familiar, and others beyond anything I had ever seen in my entire time in the Organization.

But first, I'll need to make something clear. When I refer to "Worlds," what I'm actually talking about is one of the three "systems" of worlds that are currently known--the World of Light, World of Darkness, and a third world which has been called both the "Twilight World" and the "World In-Between," depending on who you ask. DiZ preferred the second name, but those who have discovered the true nature of Light and Darkness, such as I, generally refer to it by the first.

When I refer to "worlds," on the other hand, I'm talking about individual planets or planetoids within one of the three "Worlds," which would be described more accurately as "planes," "dimensions," or something along those lines. While the Worlds of Darkness and Twilight each contain a single large, inhabitable planet along with a variety of smaller, less-comfortable worlds, the World of Light's main planet was split into many hundreds of smaller ones long ago.

I have not yet discovered the true cause of this seperation of worlds that exists within the World of Light--all the information that I have seen or heard in my travels throughout the World itself were nothing more than superstitious garbage, blaming the current state of the World on "the Darkness," as if it were an intelligent and destructive power rather than a mindless and fundamental force of nature.

It seems they've made out this "Darkness" as some sort of evil god, seeking to destroy everything they hold dear, simply to justify their urge to cling to the Light alone.

Their stories claim that Darkness and evil are one; yet how will they explain it when Darkness is crippled yet evil still thrives?

An extremely dualistic belief such as theirs never amounts to anything positive in the long run; by definition, it must point out _someone_ as the enemy. And when that enemy is destroyed, is the world saved? Are all problems solved?

No. The world remains the way it always has been and always will be, imperfect because of the actions of the individual. So another scapegoat is chosen, another crusade waged against them, and more innocents destroyed in the name of foolish superstition.

* * *

The World of Darkness is best known for its state of perpetual night, at least on the main inhabitable planet within. In reality, many other worlds exist there--but many are much smaller, and nearly impossible for anyone to live on due to their weather and other conditions.

In fact, not even the entire main planet is completely shrouded in darkness. While one side of the planet is always dark, rainy, and relatively cool in temperature, the other side--exposed to the large, red sun that the planet orbits--is always unbearably hot and dry. Almost nothing can live there--even Heartless are uncomfortable in that kind of heat--except for one creature... the Light-based insectoid beings I had discovered earlier. It seems that they thrive in desert-like conditions, especially those that are so hot that nothing else can survive for long.

Perhaps that is how they intend to make all worlds, if they ever spread. While the Heartless destroy worlds outright, it may be possible that these seek only the removal of all life but their own... but for what reason? Without any other life, can they even live? Even Heartless must eat, though their choice in meals isn't exactly what anyone else would find appetizing.

Do these new creatures feed off of the light itself?

* * *

The Twilight World, possibly the most normal of the three--and also the original home of the Organization, before we discovered the World That Never Was and set up our primary base there. The primary planet of the Twilight World, trapped between the forces of Light and Darkness and existing in a mixed state much like that of Nobodies, has normal climates and temperatures in most areas, with some places occasionally being exposed to more bizarre conditions.

Twilight Town, for example. While the surrounding areas, even as close as three miles away, have a normal light cycle, Twilight Town's sky is always frozen in place in the middle of a sunset--wedged even further between Light and Dark than the surrounding fields.

I've noticed that most Nobodies seem to awaken within an area fifty miles wide encircling Twilight Town, including each and every member of the now-dead Organization XIII. This place must have some significance, if newly-created Nobodies are drawn to it so strongly--it cannot be a mere coincidence that normal beings, who also exist in a Twilight state (though a far less concentrated one than that of Nobodies), seem to collect there as well.

I wonder... do similar places exist in the Worlds of Darkness and Light, places that are like beacons for creatures attuned to those forces?

I'll have to visit the two "Polarized Worlds" again, and inspect them more closely.


	17. Larxene

**Larxene**

There's a name I'm glad I won't be hearing again anytime soon. _Larxene._ I still shudder just thinking about her, even though my current state makes me completely invulnerable to anything she could do.

Though Saix was certainly more capable of causing physical injury, Larxene just may have been the most frightening member of the Organization for me.

When she cut you, it wasn't just your skin and flesh that took the damage--there were words and dirty looks to go along with the knives, doing just as much damage but in a different place.

The most disturbing part, of course, was that she _enjoyed_ it. I'm not sure if it was just a nasty side-effect of becoming a Nobody or if she was this way in her previous life, but Larxene was probably the most sadistic, twisted person I have ever met--and this is coming from someone who essentially grew up with Ansem and Xehanort.

It probably was just her way of handling the emotions of a Nobody, her way of trying to keep the "doors" open. That's what I like to think, anyway--it makes Larxene seem less like some monster and more like the rest of us. But either way, it's hard to forget some of the things she did.

The "Zexy Bag," for example. Sometimes, when Larxene was bored, she would sneak up on me--difficult for a normal person, Nobody or otherwise, but no problem for Larxene--and pull a large bag over my head, trapping me and leaving my legs hanging out of the open end of the bag. Then she'd pick up the bag and carry it around Castle Oblivion with her for hours at a time, occasionally poking at me with either her fingernails--if I was lucky--or various sharp objects.

She'd eventually get bored of playing with her "Zexy Bag" and go off to do something else, leaving me on a floor somewhere, still halfway in the bag. Fortunately, I could always manage to wiggle my way out of the bag, since she didn't tighten the opening of it very much and I'm not exactly one of the largest members of the Organization.

Oddly enough, the whole "Zexy Bag" ordeal would have almost been fun if not for the stabbing involved. After all, how often does anyone get a chance to be carried around on the shoulder of a 20-something-year-old girl?

And of course, when Larxene and "fun" are mentioned, Saix is never far behind. He was probably the only one of the older members who really got along with Larxene--they had a lot in common, though you wouldn't know it by their voices or appearances. Sometimes the two of them would sit ontop of one of the buildings in the World That Never Was and just talk for hours, completely oblivious to the outside world and only paying enough attention to swat away the Heartless that would crawl up toward them occasionally.

And other times, they spent their time doing... _other_ things, which I'd rather not try to remember. That's the reason--or at least, the main reason--why Vexen soundproofed Saix's and Larxene's personal rooms, after all.

The other reasons being that Saix is prone to screaming a lot when he gets angry, and Larxene has caused the deaths of many unsuspecting mailmen and pizza boys who stayed around the castle too long after making their deliveries.

You see a lot of disturbing things when you're the janitor of a place where Larxene spends most of her time.


	18. Luxord

**Luxord**

Luxord, the gambler of the group. Demyx was always the goofiest one, but Luxord's way of looking at things came in as a close second. To Luxord, everything in life--even combat--was just another game.

We first found him wandering in Twilight Town, completely disoriented and apparently slightly buzzed from alcohol. Vexen had a field day over that little piece of information--he was always trying to unravel every last mystery of our existence as Nobodies, and the fact that alcohol--and, most likely, other substances--in the body carried over to one's Nobody was a great discovery to him.

Vexen always did make a big deal over little things like that. But that's why he was so good at what he did, I guess.

Luxord, on the other hand, wasn't concerned with details. He didn't care how much money he won in a game, so long as it was enough to pay for the next game. And he always would win just enough for that, if not more--despite his obsession with games, he saw nothing wrong with bending the rules a little as long as nobody caught him.

Which is the exact reason why Luxord never did get the job he wanted in the Organization (the treasurer, of course)--nobody in their right mind would even consider letting Luxord have full access to every last munny they owned, even for a second, if they ever wanted to see it again.

Even Saix isn't crazy enough to give Luxord that kind of position, even when in the berserk rage that he goes into in battle--in fact, Luxord once asked a berserk Saix for the position, resulting in Saix actually falling out of his rage in shock at the very thought of it.

It's no surprise that Luxord was always after money, though. He was originally Count Durlo the 3rd, a man born into an extremely wealthy family and put in charge of quite a large amount of land on his homeworld. At the age of 25, he was allowed to take his aging father's position, and began amassing an enormous fortune, even greater than the rest of his family put together. He learned various tricks of the trade from his father, also a heavy gambler, and then took to the casinos.

In the four years before he became a Nobody, Count Durlo managed to build up a reputation as the world's greatest gambler; a man that could never lose at any game of cards or dice, no matter what the odds. Of course, he was cheating--but he did it so well, and so quickly, that very few ever noticed.

Those who did ended up dead before the sun rose the next day, killed by one of Durlo's many powerful allies in organized crime.

But, as the man who would become Luxord soon discovered, no amount of card tricks can help you against a skilled wielder of the Darkness. The Darkness conceals--and those who know it well can see through any lesser concealments.

During one of his trips to a popular casino, he encountered a powerful witch, Maleficent, who was also visiting the casino; with her was a strange, dark-skinned man in a brown cloak. The two challenged Durlo to a game of cards, allowing him to choose the game and the rules. Durlo, slightly drunk at the time, offered to let them take any one treasure from his collection if he lost.

But, no matter how long Durlo played, he could never manage to win. The Count used all of his tricks, cheating more in this one game than he ever did in much of his life, but the Darkness-users saw through his trickery and countered with some of their own. The game came to a close just before the casino itself closed, with Durlo losing by a single point. He stood up and was about to lead the two to his mansion, where they could choose their prize, when the brown-cloaked man lowered his hood--revealing Xehanort's Heartless.

Durlo didn't recognize him, however--he had never been to Radiant Garden before, after all--and kept his back turned until he had led the two outside. Once there, Xehanort immediately took his "prize"--Durlo's heart. Durlo's body fell lifelessly to the ground and disappeared, and Xehanort let go of his heart, allowing it to drift away and transform into a Heartless.

We discovered later that Durlo's homeworld had been destroyed a week afterward--the Heartless had become numerous by this time. It wouldn't be long before they began a full-scale attack on the World of Light.

Luxord, unlike many of those who were forced into combat with the young Keyblade wielder, never intended to kill Sora outright. Instead, Luxord's only intention was to play a new type of game with him.

This game was one he first devised once when he and I were sparring, and resembled a battle if you didn't look closely. It was, essentially, a training session with a magically-imposed time limit, created to judge Luxord's combat skill against mine--being fooled by my illusions or struck by my weapon would cost Luxord some time, while being struck by Luxord's various card attacks would do the same to me. Whoever was first to run out of time, depending both on how much actual time had passed and on how effective we were in battle, would fall unconscious instantly.

I quickly learned not to ever bring anything valuable with me when I went to Luxord's training sessions.

Luxord and I had little in common beyond our preference for trickery rather than all-out combat, and we only talked occasionally. It was these few times when I learned of his past--like Xaldin, he was eager to tell stories of things he had done before. Unlike Xaldin, his stories never seemed exaggerated in the least--he was much more calm about most things, probably due to the way he looked at life.

After all, if life is but a game, why should we be so worried about losing?


	19. Xigbar

**Author's Note:** Xigbar's voice in the English voice is teh suck. But you knew that already.

In other words, please don't let _that_ voice pop into your head when reading this, even though it is about Xiggy. Image more of a cranky old man type voice, except not TOO old and kinda rough/tough-sounding rather than "Wheezin' Geezer" sounding.

Or if you're one of the bilingual types, just go with his Japanese voice. That works.

Either way, let's just say that my view of Xigbar would use much "harder" words than "clever little sneak" when referring to Sora, and he'd probably follow that with a speech about how the kids these days don't respect their elders, and inevitably _this_ would lead into the battle after Sora calls him an old man and he gets pissed.

* * *

**Xigbar**

Xigbar... the reason why Demyx, after a year in the Organization, jumped every time he heard a gunshot, no matter how far away it sounded or from which direction it was coming.

Of course, Xigbar wasn't just a mindless shooting machine, though that always was the one thing he did best. He was originally Braig, the second-oldest of Ansem's researchers and the first to join. In those days, before we all became Nobodies, Braig was the one in charge of the research team's finances as well as keeping track of what equipment we had in the labs.

Braig was an elf, belonging to the most technologically advanced of the three elven tribes that existed on his homeworld. Along with his brother Sia, he came to Radiant Garden when he was younger--Ansem was interested in the elves' technology, and wanted to use some of it in his experiments.

As Braig and Sia were the two oldest sons in their family, they were the ones chosen to take some examples of their technology to Ansem's research center. Rather than going back home afterward, the two of them stayed in Radiant Garden, with Sia taking care of their house and doing odd jobs to pay for food and other things, while Braig helped Ansem with his research.

Though Braig was never exceptionally intelligent, he was surprisingly skilled with machines of all types--probably because, due to being raised among the elves, he had been exposed to technology from an early age. He was especially fond of mechanical weapons, such as guns, and had a large collection of guns from various worlds. Though his depth perception should have suffered due to his missing eye, somehow he still had the best vision of us all--both before becoming a Nobody and afterward. I guess being an elf has something to do with that.

We later discovered that the reason for the eyepatch he wore, as well as several of the scars on various parts of his body (though not the one on his face, which wasn't there until long after he became a Nobody) and probably his affinity for guns, was that he had been involved in a war on his homeworld at some point. He would often mention the war, especially when one of the younger researchers was having a hard time, saying things like _"You think this crap is hard? You'd get your ass handed to you on a platter if you were in the war!"_ and flinging random insults at whoever he was talking to.

Braig always did like insulting people whenever he had an opening, and this habit continued even after he became Xigbar.

He was especially hard on anyone who mentioned his age--though he was old and everyone knew it, Xigbar hated it when people kept pointing it out to him. While sometimes the stray "old man" joke would be ignored by him, this wasn't the case most of the time. Usually, he'd go into a long speech about how he was better at everything than the younger members, usually targeting Demyx, Marluxia, and Larxene as his main examples of "the dumb kids," as he often called them.

Of course, he really wasn't _that_ much better at everything than the "dumb kids"--Marluxia was nearly as powerful as he was combat-wise, Larxene's speed could match the older man's, and Demyx... well, he was a better singer than Xigbar, at least.

Xigbar was also just about the only one in the original six members who didn't take things--_most_ things, anyway--very seriously. Missions usually bored him, unless he had the chance to shoot at things, and after we had refurbished Castle Oblivion, a lot of his time was spent in the memory rooms, re-enacting battles from his younger years for fun.

Yes, Xigbar was probably the only one of us--besides maybe Luxord--who would choose to fight _for fun._ The rest of us only fought when it was necessary--when our lives were threatened by children with giant keys, for example, or when a Heartless infestation broke out in someplace where we'd rather not have a bunch of little Bugs of Darkness crawling around.

Speaking of children with giant keys, it was Xigbar who defeated the lone Keyblade wielder who we encountered early on in the Organization's history. He was the only one of us fast enough to keep up with her--anyone else, even Xaldin, was unable to land a hit fast enough before she did something to knock us away. It was a hard fight, lasting more than a day before it was finally over. Xigbar, at first, didn't see the girl as a threat--she didn't _look_ particularly powerful, at least, and we didn't yet know how much power a Keyblade provided to its wielder.

To make it even worse, she was attuned to the power of Twilight much like we were, making her even more powerful. Lexaeus was the first to fight her, but he was too slow to get a good hit in and was thrown aside into the field around us before he could do any significant damage. Xaldin, Vexen, and I decided to try attacking all at once, but after several minutes of combat I was lying on the ground half-conscious and Vexen was at the foot of a tree, knocked out cold by the impact.

The fight raged on, with Xemnas--at this time, not nearly as powerful as he was in his last years alive--and Xaldin fighting the girl for hours before finally being defeated. Xemnas was flung aside by a powerful Keyblade swing that broke his arm and caused bursts of energy to randomly fire off as he lost control of his powers and then collapsed, and Xaldin was seriously wounded, with several of his spears broken from the battle. Xigbar was the last to arrive on the scene--and the first to be able to match the girl's speed, teleporting and levitating just in time to avoid her attacks and often getting a few hits in himself.

Perhaps it was due to being an elf, and therefore naturally more connected to magic, but Xigbar had a greater mastery of his powers at the time than anyone else had. He continued his clash with the young Keyblade wielder, and eventually a side of Xigbar that is rarely seen came out--a reflection of the Braig of the past, a fearless war hero, emotionless and focused on nothing but the battle in front of him. Even in the battle that ended up destroying him, Xigbar never again let this side of him surface--even as he grew weak and died from Sora's keyblade strikes, there was nothing to make him snap and become the warrior he had been long before.

The girl never saw it coming. Until then, they had been evenly matched--but when Xigbar snapped and let all of his being (heart or no heart) become focused on the downfall of she who held the Keyblade, her advantage quickly shrunk and slowly faded away into nothing.

Xigbar absolutely destroyed her, using a level of magic that he no longer remembers how to use and focusing it into his guns. The fight continued for a while, but it became obvious who was going to win. The girl never let up, though--even with one arm crippled by an orb of pure gravitational force and the rest of her body almost transformed into a pincushion by the arrow-like bullets he fired, she kept on fighting.

The final blow was something Xigbar has never managed to duplicate ever since, a vortex of energy formed directly beneath the girl's feet by two shots of his guns, aimed so carefully and travelling so quickly that they tore a hole in space. She fought against the pull of the vortex, but eventually it became too much and her Keyblade was the only thing remaining--and even it began to waver a little before the vortex faded and it fell to the ground with a crash.

I'm unsure what became of that particular Keyblade, as it flashed and disappeared before Xigbar could reach for it. It hasn't been seen since, so perhaps it was destroyed... or possibly it just hasn't chosen its next wielder yet.

Xigbar and I never got along perfectly, but he was usually tolerable as long as nobody reminded him of his ever-increasing age. That was where his most visible scar came from--once, he and Saix were arguing over something, and Saix, in a moment of insanity, suggested that Xigbar was getting too old to have a high position in the Organization.

The fight didn't end until Xigbar was lying on the ground bleeding from a gaping wound on the side of his face, missing a tiny chunk from one of his ears and barely able to move. Saix didn't come out of the fight unharmed, either--several scars now hidden beneath his cloak originated here, as did the large, X-shaped scar between his eyes. By the time we found them, Xigbar was barely conscious and Saix was on his knees on the floor surrounded by various puddles of the two elves' blood, clinging to his sword for balance.

What should've been a simple scuffle between two brothers became something entirely worse thanks to the fact that the two now had weapons and powers, and were so used to them that they couldn't have a fight without getting them involved.

Xigbar always picked on his little brother, but after that fight he was always a bit more cautious about starting fights with Saix.


	20. Keyblades

**Author's Note:** Now that Xigbar's chapter is done with, so are the chapters about individual Organization members--Xemnas has already been talked about a lot, so there's no real need for him to have his own chapter, and Roxas was only in the Organization a month or so, or possibly even less than that, before Zexy "died."

And Zexion's the one talking, so it'd be a bit weird to have a chapter based entirely on him.

But that doesn't mean there won't ever be another individual-character-based chapter, of course... I can think of at least a few I could write some stuff about that haven't been mentioned in detail yet.

* * *

**Keyblades**

There are still many mysteries surrounding the weapon known as a Keyblade.

It was the weapon of the Organization's first major opponent, a female Keyblade wielder from somewhere in the Twilight World. It was the weapon of Roxas, our thirteenth and final member, who was actually able to use two Keyblades at once. It was the weapon of Sora, the boy responsible both for the defeat of Xehanort and many other Heartless as well as the senseless slaughter of almost the entire Organization. And later he, like Roxas before him, became able to use two Keyblades at once under the right conditions.

The Keyblade was used by King Mickey, both an ally in the defeat of Xehanort's Heartless as well as, later on, one of many pawns in DiZ's plans for the Organization's destruction. Riku, too, managed to acquire his own Keyblade, and even Kairi, seemingly a defenseless little girl with neither physical strength or any kind of special powers, somehow ended up with one.

Sometimes, the Keyblade seems to choose its wielder, as if the weapon itself has a limited degree of intelligence. This was the case with Sora, who was "chosen" seemingly at random, immediately before his island was invaded by Heartless.

Other times, another magical weapon may transform into a Keyblade, apparently triggered by a sudden rise in the power of its wielder. This was the case with Riku--when he began to draw more power from the Darkness, somehow causing him to gradually take the form of Xehanort, his Soul Eater sword began to change as well. Near the end of the Organization's final weeks in existence, the transformation was complete--the Soul Eater had become a Keyblade which Riku called "Road to Dawn."

And in some cases, someone just happens to find an unused Keyblade, either dropped by its former wielder or left somewhere for safekeeping long ago. This was the case with King Mickey's Keyblade, which he found while exploring the World of Darkness. Traveling deep within the ancient ruins left behind by the world's oldest human inhabitants, older than the World That Never Was by hundreds of years and left abandoned for a very long time, he came upon the primary Keyblade of the World of Darkness.

It's rather odd that someone as entrenched in the Light as Mickey was able to wield a Keyblade meant for the World of Darkness, but perhaps it was a sign that Mickey was growing to realize the true nature of Darkness. "Growing," I say, because even as he and the others battled Xemnas, Mickey was still afraid of the Darkness even as he called upon it for part of his power.

The final, and most confusing, way of gaining a Keyblade is the one that I've thought about the hardest--the way that Kairi's Keyblade, used only for a few minutes and only to defeat a small swarm of weaker Heartless, came into existence. I saw it happen with my own eyes--well, not exactly "eyes," given my current state, but that's the best way to put it. It seemed almost like Riku had simply handed a second Keyblade to Kairi, but how would Riku have found _another_ Keyblade?

I was watching Riku's progress ever since I awakened in my current state, and I never saw him discover a second Keyblade--only the Road to Dawn, created when the Soul Eater transformed into a Twilight-aligned Keyblade through an infusion of both Light and Darkness.

There seems to be no rational explanation for the Keyblade used by Kairi--and apparently Riku agrees with me, as he has not mentioned that Keyblade once since it was last seen. It almost seems as if he has forgotten that it ever existed.

Was Kairi somehow "chosen" to wield a Keyblade, like Sora before her? And why in the name of existence did Riku forget all about the mysterious Keyblade almost immediately after he and Sora defeated Xemnas?

Kairi, too, has not been seen with that Keyblade recently. Has she forgotten about her own weapon?

The ever-growing number of the bizarre Light-based creatures...

Keyblades seemingly appearing out of nowhere, and vanishing as quickly as they came...

Sudden bursts of forgetfulness within those with normally accurate memories, with no visible explanation to be found...

I can't help but feel that the events I am watching over now, no matter how strange they may be, are only the calm before the storm.


	21. More Misconceptions

**Author's Note:** I just had to write another one, after finding even more things that people get just plain _wrong_ far too often. Again, nothing overly fangirlish gets mentioned, because I doubt that very many of those kinds of fangirls exist in the KH universe (and those that do are either very quiet or very dead, depending on which Organization member they're obsessed with, heh.)

These are more along the lines of general Kingdom Hearts-related misconceptions, which probably are widespread beliefs even within the KH universe itself.

* * *

**More Misconceptions**

I can't believe some of the ridiculous things I've heard. The misconceptions that those with hearts often have about the way Nobodies' emotions work are bad enough, but I can at least understand where those opinions are coming from--some of us, especially those like Saix and Xemnas who prefer to keep most of their emotions covered up rather than even trying to express them, can seem rather emotionless at times.

But what I'm about to talk about is nothing like that. It doesn't make any sense at all, and as far as I can tell it derives itself entirely from one little phrase used by DiZ in one of his writings--"Non-existant Ones." What I'm talking about, of course, is the bizarre notion that we Nobodies simply _do not exist._

I've never heard anything so idiotic. Even the suggestion that Roxas and Axel, or any other two Organization members for that matter, are... _romantically involved_... at least has SOME basis in reality, sanity, and rational thought--many of us are close friends with some of our fellow Organization members, and if, in some alternate universe, Marluxia wasn't the only gay one in the group, it's certainly possible--or even _likely_--that some of us might end up together.

But claiming that we don't exist at all is such a nonsensical thought that I almost feel less intelligent just from knowing that some people actually believe that.

If Nobodies actually did not exist, they would be unable to hurt anyone, as they wouldn't be composed of any sort of matter or energy, not even the wispy, immaterial form of energy that composes souls. It would be impossible to see a Nobody, touch a Nobody, hear a Nobody, or smell a Nobody (in the case of Vexen's unwashed hair, Marluxia's flowery scent, or the smell of freshly-cooked meat and other foods that usually followed Axel wherever he went). It would be impossible to _taste_ a Nobody as well, if you're into that sort of thing.

In other words, the idea that Nobodies somehow don't exist is so ridiculous I can barely find words strong enough to describe how ridiculous it is. It's like suggesting that the grass is actually colorless, or even invisible, despite the fact that anyone with functioning eyes can tell that grass is not only visible, but is usually green (though there are some worlds don't always follow that particular rule).

So often are old, wise men actually old, delusional fools in a convincing disguise. It's often claimed that we Nobodies intend to trick everyone--**our** trickery? Our trickery is nothing compared to that of a few foolish, racist old men. DiZ, of course, was responsible for the popularity of the original "non-existant" fallacy, but he's far from the only one guilty of this foolishness.

Yen Sid, a man who by all appearances is an ancient and wise wizard, was the second of the old fools to spread this misconception. He hated Nobodies--and for what reason? None, other than the fact that, due to his tower's proximity to Twilight Town, many of them ended up wandering into it.

He even went as far as telling Sora, and likely many others, that Nobodies did not truly exist at all--as if the heart alone, which throughout all of known history has always been known to be the _least_ important of the three portions of a complete being, somehow determines existence. We may lack hearts, but claiming that because of this we do not exist at all is likely to be the single most evil act that the old wizard has ever committed.

In his ever-growing insanity, Xemnas too began to believe that falsehood, at least in part. While he was still coherent enough to realize that we obviously existed, he had little more respect for his own kind than DiZ or Yen Sid had--he sought Kingdom Hearts to complete his own existence, with his final plan intended to leave the rest of us, and even the helpless non-intelligent Nobodies, with no hope for survival. Once attaining completion himself, he too would deny the very existence of those who were not so fortunate--regardless of how much help they had been in his plans up to that point.

It was Xemnas who suggested many of the names for rooms in our primary base. The rest of us, halfway between sarcasm and apathy toward our Superior's name suggestions, went along with the slightly-disturbing "nothing-themed" names--it wasn't like anyone else had the idea to name individual rooms, after all, and it was much more impressive-sounding than just calling them "that hallway," "this empty room," "the other hallway," or "the room with the really big door."

Saix, not particularly right in the head himself, was pulled into Xemnas' claims that only those with a heart could truly exist, leaving those lacking hearts with even less of a right to exist than the most destructive insect. He, like Xemnas, planned on abandoning his Organization the second he attained a complete, heart-bearing existence--I'm not sure if even Larxene would have been spared from this abandonment, if Saix had ever become complete.

If I had any ability to interact with the physical world in my current state, I would be unbearably tempted to use my powers to drive each and ever believer of this idiotic lie to insanity--if they weren't there already.

* * *

Almost as disturbingly idiotic as the idea that Nobodies don't exist is the claim many have made that the physical heart--the one that pumps blood--and the other--the one that keeps emotions stable and contains Light and Darkness--are one and the same.

How could anyone be so lacking in knowledge of anatomy as to get _that_ idea? The heart responsible for pumping blood is merely a part of the body, and like every other part of the body, it stays perfectly intact through the process that causes someone to become a Nobody.

Nobodies can bleed just as well as anyone else--or at least, those of us who keep our original form can. I'm not sure about those who lose their form and become non-intelligent creatures--perhaps they keep normal bodily functions, and perhaps not. Only Vexen would know for sure--he's the only one who's studied them closely at all, and he didn't allow anyone else in his lab during the experiments out of fear that one of the younger members would try something silly.

Claiming that the heart lost when one becomes a Nobody is the same as the physical heart is utterly stupid--just because two things share the same name doesn't mean they're the same thing, or even that they're related in any way. I'm sure there are more elves named Braig or Sia on the elves' world, if it's still inhabited at all, but that wouldn't make them related to Xigbar and Saix any more than just being an elf in the first place does.

* * *

Another odd misconception is that Keyblades are somehow more effective against Nobodies than other weapons. This, too, is false--but, in a way, true. The whole truth of the matter is that Keyblades are simply more powerful in general than most non-magical weapons of their size, and thus more effective against us than mundane weapons would be. While a normal weapon, composed only of normal matter, would be less effective against a Nobody due to the toughness provided to us by being infused with Twilight energy, a Keyblade--or any other magical weapon--is infused with some form of energy of its own. Whether this energy is Light, Darkness, Twilight, or some other type, it is still more effective than a purely physical weapon would be.

This is very different than the case of Keyblades against Heartless. When used to slay a Heartless, Keyblades--and, in fact, most other magical weapons--will purify the Heartless into its original form, a heart. Once purified in this way, the heart is free to either re-enter the body it once belonged to (if that body is nearby) or drift off to the World of Darkness, where it becomes part of the ever-growing Kingdom Hearts.

Or at least, hearts _used_ to become part of Kingdom Hearts. Since the gigantic destination of lost hearts was damaged by DiZ's contraption, and then absorbed by Xemnas, it would seem that hearts now have no place to go upon their body's death, or their purification from a Heartless.

I have not looked into it closely yet, but it seems that once again I will be the one responsible for investigating one of existence's many mysteries--that of the final resting place of hearts, now that Kingdom Hearts itself no longer exists.

* * *

Another terrible mistake that people often make is the assumption that Heartless and Nobodies are impossible to defeat without a magical weapon. Some even go so far as to claim that a Keyblade is require to destroy either of the two most-known types of incomplete beings. Of course, neither of these claims is true.

While Heartless--and, to a much greater degree, Nobodies--are tougher to damage with normal weapons than complete beings, they are not completely invincible to non-magical attacks. This should be obvious--it's not rare for a strong warrior without access to magical weapons to defeat many Heartless, and some manage to fight off quite a few of the many non-intelligent Nobodies as well.

Take the famous pirate captain Jack Sparrow, for example--though his weapon is a perfectly normal gun, not magical in any way, it is still capable of causing damage to both Heartless and Nobodies. While it would be difficult to defeat a very powerful Nobody--such as members of the Organization--with such a weapon, this wouldn't be because the gun would be completely ineffective. Instead, the cause of Jack's defeat against one of us would be because we are far beyond the level of power held by a typical non-intelligent Nobody, and on top of that we have access to rational thinking skills--and therefore capable of using strategy in battle as well as brute force.

Even a blow from bare hands, if targeted at the right places or with the right amount of strength and skill, can inflict a considerable amount of damage on a Nobody or Heartless. Heartless and basic Nobodies can even be defeated in this way, if the blows are strong or numerous enough and the person attacking is careful enough. Though I doubt anyone exists who is powerful enough to kill an Organization member with their bare hands, it would certainly be possible for someone with the right amount of strength.

Many things often though to be impossible are actually possible, if one would only try.


	22. Things You Didn't Know

**Author's Note:** Along the lines of the Misconceptions chapters, but... not. Instead of things you thought you knew that were actually bullshit, this chapter brings you... things you _never_ knew about the Organization!

* * *

**Things You Didn't Know**

There's many things that few know about Organization XIII and its members. For example, we're actually not completely serious all the time--or, at least, most of us aren't. Though it's rare to see Xemnas or Saix crack a smile, most everyone else in the Organization has a goofy side.

For example, Xaldin. Though many of the younger members don't understand why, we no longer allow any food containing beans--especially if that food happens to be tacos or burritos--into either of our two bases. The reason? Well, to put it simply, "The Wind of Despair" isn't just what Xaldin calls one of his attacks.

Axel is known to do similar things--often, when drunk, he will literally belch out fire, usually causing Marluxia to throw a fit over the walls or decorations being damaged. Several times he and Roxas have been caught trying to light their gas, though I'm not sure if Axel was drunk at the time. Actually, I hope he wasn't, because that could go _horribly_ wrong if Axel's aim was even an inch off when providing the fire.

Demyx has been known to bring prostitutes into Castle Oblivion with him when he comes by, usually forgetting to watch Larxene closely as the hooker leaves and ending up having to explain exactly what happened to a very angry pimp in Twilight Town. We've had to bail him out of such situations more than a few times, until Xigbar eventually just gave in and let Demyx borrow some of his porno magazines (in exchange for Demyx having to clean his own room, rather than having the janitor--in other words, me--do it).

Speaking of Xigbar, he's been known to hit the bottle fairly hard, though his alcohol tolerance still can't stand up to Axel's. I'm not sure exactly what makes Axel able to hold so much liquor--probably something to do with his metabolism, which may run at a higher rate thanks to his fire powers.

Regardless of his lower alcohol tolerance, Xigbar seems to operate better when drunk than Axel does--his accuracy with his guns doesn't seem to decrease any, at least, and he's still capable of walking on the celing without falling off and landing on someone or something.

He's also never convinced a Riku clone to kill me during a period of severe drunkenness, which Axel is unfortunately guilty of.

But enough about that.

Vexen, though not known for being particularly goofy, has his moments as well. For example, some of his... _creative_... recipes involving avacados. If you can make some form of food out of avacados, Vexen has probably tried it before. When the Organization was first starting, I was often required to prepare food for Vexen when he was busy with his experiments, and I learned well over a hundred different avacado recipes during this time.

Of course, I don't really like avacados, so those recipes are no real help to me, but it's still nice to know that I'd be able to cook _something_ if I had to.

Vexen, of course, isn't the only one with eating habits different than normal--Lexaeus, a long-time vegetarian, has been known to eat things in ways that most people wouldn't be able to.

Mainly because most people don't have big enough mouths or strong enough jaw muscles to bite through a whole grapefruit without even peeling it first. I can't even do the same to a tangerine, obviously a much smaller fruit than the kind Lexaeus prefers.

Though I'm sure Saix has a silly side of his own somewhere beneath the layers of insanity, he rarely shows it to anyone--except maybe Larxene, but honestly, I'd rather _not_ know what kind of "silly" things the two of them do when noone else is around.

Luxord, of course, sees everything as some sort of game--so you don't really need to look for his silly side, as it comes out almost constantly in some form or another (though in ways very different than Demyx's). He's now almost infamous in Twilight Town and several other villages in the area, mostly thanks to his habit of cheating little children out of their collectable cards and then selling them back to kids in other places.

The silliest thing about Luxord, however, is that he doesn't just use these cards to make money--no, he actually learns how to play each and every one of those simplistic card games that seem to fascinate small children. He's never lost against anyone younger than himself, and among those the same age or older, only Lexaeus and myself have ever been able to win against him--and even those victories were only possible because I was able to catch him in the process of cheating before he managed to pull anything off.

Marluxia, of course, has a well-hidden silly side... well-hidden, that is, if you see him during battle or other tense moments. Otherwise, he usually lets his silly side come out whenever it has a chance, often resulting in him making off-color comments about barely-dressed men he sees on television or talking to his plants as he waters and prunes them.

Yes, Marluxia's daily speech to his plants... even when he's not under the influence of any "plants" of his own, Marluxia has been known to say some rather silly things to his plants--usually reassuring them of how pretty they are, as if they were insecure little teenage girls rather than slightly lesser forms of life that are not even able to _hear_ anything their caretaker says.

Larxene, like Saix, has a silly side that is probably more disturbing than funny in most cases. Unlike Saix, she lets it show more often--for better or worse. There is, of course, her hobby of playing with the "Zexy Bag," but that's far from the only thing she does for fun.

Occasionally she will randomly pounce on one of the weaker members as they come around the bend of a hallway or pass by a door, usually resulting in one of us having a few bruises and then Larxene zipping away like some hyperactive, psychotic kitten, looking for the next "toy" to play with.

Roxas, of course, was also the owner of a very active goofy side, which usually came out the most when he was suggesting things for Naminé to draw--for example, Xemnas eating a Heartless, Marluxia as a girl, Larxene with slimy tentacles replacing her arms and legs, and other pictures that would probably make the people depicted within them start running after Naminé in a rage--or hanging around with Axel. Axel's influences certainly added a lot of... _interesting_... words to Roxas' vocabulary, which the two of them were sure to use frequently as long as the older members were around, just to annoy us a little.

As far as I can remember, Xemnas only showed his goofy side once in his entire history as the Organization's Superior--one time, after we discovered that Ansem had begun calling himself DiZ and had returned, Xemnas made DiZ an honorary member of the Organization, "Number Zero," because of the fact that it was his experiments that made our existence as Nobodies possible in the first place. He was Number Zero, rather than some other number or title, for one reason--he was forever doomed to have "zero" influence over our actions, even if he wanted to.

As for my own silly side, that's a story for another day.


	23. Cloning

**Cloning**

I should have suspected it when he first announced, when the Organization was still in its infancy, that he was beginning a new project that would take years to complete--he was researching a way to perfect the cloning process.

Vexen's cloning process was something he first began research on when he was still Even. The original version of the process was slow and complicated, and required a female to carry the cloned embryo as it developed--in other words, it was entirely worthless in a group of researchers made up of nothing but six men. Much of his research throughout his time in the Organization was spent on perfecting this process so that a machine could serve as a substitute for a female's body.

And finally, only weeks before his death, he had perfected the process. This improved version was able to create an embryo with identical DNA to the person it was taken from, and develop it into an exact copy of that person within several days. His first prototype clone using this process was his Riku Replica, which came out perfectly. Even Riku's desire to protect his friends and use of both Light and Darkness were copied--and then enhanced, when Naminé altered his memories to match those of Riku himself.

But Vexen's research was leading to something much more than merely a clone of a confused, Darkness-fearing little boy. In the last days before his death, he had spent almost all of his time deep within his lab--with all physical entries locked, and even teleportation to that room disabled thanks to another of Vexen's inventions.

He never let us into the back room of his laboratory, and I now know why.

The whole time, this cloning process had only one purpose: to allow Vexen--and perhaps other Organization members as well--to be, essentially, immortal. When it seemed he was just wasting his time on another dead-end experiment, he was actually hard at work cloning _himself._

And not only that--Vexen had planned ahead. He saw his death coming, though it's doubtful he expected it to be at the hands of Axel. In the days before his death--or, rather, his first death--he had constructed a complicated device that would resurrect him in a cloned body after a certain amount of time had passed.

And not just him--he also had clones made of Lexaeus and even myself before he died. It seems obvious that, if he had lived even a few days longer, he would have expanded his collection to include most, if not all, of the other surviving Organization members.

It seems that this time quickly approaches. To ensure a full retention of memories, powers, and the very soul itself, the cloning process was drawn out, made to resemble the gestation process that his machine originally intended to avoid. Once nine months had passed, the clone began growing at an accellerated rate similar to that of the Riku Replica--except confined to a life-support pod, similar to that which held Sora, Donald, and Goofy for a year.

Vexen set these pods on a timer, planning for them to release their contents exactly eighteen months after the death of the originals. It seems that Vexen planned this project better than the Proof of Existence pedestals, as the pod containing my clone-to-be has not yet become active--instead of simply breaking down as the Proof of Existence did when exposed to my current state, the timed cloning process recognizes me as alive.

Barely alive, that is. But I suppose that's close enough for now.

As for Vexen and Lexaeus, their clones are rapidly approaching the age at which their DNA was collected--it seems that both of them were lucky enough to undergo a normal death, rather than being trapped between living and dead as I currently am. The clones will awaken soon--_very_ soon, by the looks of them. Possibly even within the next week, if the times displayed on the outside of the pods are accurate...

It should be quite interesting to observe the reborn Vexen and Lexaeus in the near future. Perhaps I'll even get to answer a question that has picked at my mind for years now--what happens after death, and is it any different for a Nobody than for anyone else?

I shall find out soon, it seems.


	24. Hearts

**Hearts**

I've been looking into another mystery lately, to keep myself from focusing too much on the developing clones of Vexen and Lexaeus. "A watched pot never boils" seems to apply to some things other than pots as well--the closer I watch their life-support pods, the longer it takes for anything to happen.

With Kingdom Hearts no longer a part of existence, where do hearts go when a complete beings dies, or when a Heartless is purified to its original state? That was the question I asked myself months ago, when Kingdom Hearts was absorbed by Xemnas and then destroyed along with him. And it seems that now I've found something that may be the answer.

The lost hearts, drifting far off course without the mass of Kingdom Hearts pulling them onward, are becoming Heartless. Naturally-occuring Heartless--not entirely like the man-made variety that resulted from Ansem's experiments and those of Xehanort after him, but similar in most ways--have begun surfacing on the World of Darkness in places they usually ignored before. Never in large numbers, which is quite odd for Heartless, but enough to be noticed.

Unlike the Heartless that result from the forceful extraction of a heart, these are much smaller and less aggressive. If Heartless existed anywhere before Ansem's first experiments, they were likely of this variety--roughly the size of a kitten, resembling the basic Shadow Heartless, and so weak that they would likely be harmless except in large numbers.

If these had been the only Heartless to exist, they would never have been a true threat to the worlds. I'm not even sure if they're strong enough to take the heart from a being as large as a human--it's likely that they would be restricted to going after much smaller prey, unless they were hunting in a very large swarm.

But not all hearts are destined to become Heartless. No, there are others that become something worse.

Hearts that drift away from the darker side of the primary planet in the World of Darkness, and onto the other side, are doomed to become the Light creatures I discovered before. The origin of these creatures is no longer the mystery it once was--they spawn from lost hearts that drift into an area saturated with Light.

And, unfortunately, when these creatures come into existence this way, it is not as weaker versions of their usual selves. Lost hearts, no longer influenced by the person they once belonged to, naturally gravitate more toward Light than Darkness--this is the reason why the pull of Kingdom Hearts was so strong to them. It was the only strong source of Light within the World of Darkness--as hearts enter that World, they are immediately drawn to it. But without Kingdom Hearts to act as their destination, hearts are free to drift elsewhere--and, seeking a place with slightly more Light than Darkness, many are inevitably pulled toward places that will transform them into these new creatures.

When they land in a place saturated with Darkness, they become the weaker form of Heartless that I discovered recently... and when they reach the end of their journey in a place saturated with Light, they become a new creature, spawned from a corrupted heart much like the Heartless, but drawing from Light rather than Darkness.

The creatures of Light are amassing on the sun-exposed side of the planet, and forming hives with many ranks within them, much like those of normal ants or bees. New forms, too, are appearing--while my first observation of them only showed two types, there are now more than ten, including some much larger and more powerful than the first.

They do not appear to draw any features, physical or otherwise, from their former selves, unlike Heartless and Nobodies. Instead, they all take the form of insects or various other invertebrates--or sometimes twisted versions of other creatures, modified to look more insectoid. My current theory on the cause of this is the fact that they are derived from hearts that were already lost, rather than those taken directly out of a living victim as Heartless usually are.

The first type I discovered, perhaps the basic variety as Shadows are to Heartless and Dusks are to Nobodies, was a fast, cricket-like creature. Unlike normal insects, it only had four legs, and its antennae were actually closer to tentacles, able to grab onto things. Like normal crickets, however, it was capable of jumping very well, easily beyond the range that a normal human can jump and even beating out other creatures that are usually better at jumping, such as some large species of cats.

The second was a many-tentacled creature, almost resembling a moving sea anemone crossed with a slug, except for the fact that it lived on land. It was much slower than the cricket-like variety, but apparently tougher.

Recently I've observed more varieties, including a very large type that resembles a centipede but with far fewer legs and a cluster of tentacles on the end of it where a tail or some form of stinger would usually be. There is also a humanoid variety which reminded me of an armored but less-bulky version of the Berserker Nobodies, but with sharp claws and tentacles sprouting from various places on its body.

Some of these creatures have also attained the ability to fly. One that I've seen more often had four wings, with only two limbs (sharp-clawed arms) and no proper legs for ground transportation at all--only tentacles. It can be assumed that this creature spends most, if not all, of its time in the air.

In whatever form, the presence of these creatures is disturbing. Once Vexen and Lexaeus become active, I must try to make contact with them and attempt to do something about the problem...


	25. Secret Chambers

**Secret Chambers**

Recently, I've been exploring various places in the World of Light, trying to see if the Light creatures I discovered are appearing here as well. Fortunately, it seems that those creatures are currently confined to the World of Darkness, existing only on various small, uninhabited planets as well as on the sun-exposed side of the main planet.

However, I've discovered something else that may be useful in the future. Deep beneath the main hallways of Disney Castle lies a vast network of catacombs, apparently abandoned for hundreds of years--long before the reign of the current king, Mickey the Second, began.

Perhaps even before the reign of his now-dead father, Mickey the First, who ruled there before.

I'm not sure who built the catacombs, or what their purpose originally was, but it seems that now they are only inhabited by various insects and other small creatures. No Heartless lurk in those halls, thanks to the artifact stored within the castle above that prevents beings of Darkness from entering, and it seems that no Nobodies have teleported their way in, either.

In fact, it doesn't seem that any intelligent life of any kind has been there for many years... which makes the other contents of the catacombs even more mysterious.

In some rooms, there are entire shelves filled with old books and scrolls, most of which are still in fairly good condition due to not being disturbed in so long. Banners hang on the wall, their cloth rotted away from age and whatever was once displayed on them no longer visible. Occasionally the familiar emblem of Mickey's royal family, a stylized mouse head, is visible on one of them, but there are also other symbols--symbols I have never seen before.

One part of the catacombs, closer to the castle itself than the rest, seems to be some sort of very large tomb. Judging by the engravings that aren't completely obscured by the dust yet, this is the resting place of Mickey's ancestors, going back at least seven generations. Further on, down a long hallway, is another tomb--this one by itself, not sharing a room with even a single other grave. This is possibly the tomb of the very first king to reside here, a man whose name is long forgotten.

But perhaps the most interesting room in the catacombs is one many hundreds of feet below the surface, seperated from the rest of the catacombs by a caved-in passage--of course, a purely physical roadblock like this was no problem for me in my current state.

In this room, there is a large scroll rack. Above it is a simple label--written very clearly in large, black letters--in the old style of writing that the people of this kingdom used long ago.

"Scrolls of Darkness."

What secrets do these scrolls contain, and why are they hidden so deep below the castle? They cannot be magical scrolls containing the power of Darkness, or the magical Cornerstone of Light located above would prevent them from being placed here--so what are they?

Do they contain instructions for using the Darkness, methods once used long ago that were forgotten in favor of the more destructive, Heartless-controlling ways that most of the current Darkness-users prefer?

Or are they something else entirely? A legend, perhaps? Or... a lost account of ancient history?

Lexaeus, who has always been a scholar of history, will surely be interested in this discovery if that is the case. Vexen, too--regardless of their contents, these scrolls are sure to contain some knowledge that is lost to the current generation.

I'll have to bring the two of them here with me, if I ever manage to regain a physical form somehow.


	26. Lost Ones

**Lost Ones**

Recently, I've been thinking about my current state. "Born" when the Riku Replica attempted to drain power from my former self, I am composed of nothing but my soul and a mass of Twilight energy, only alive because my soul bonded with it at the last second before death.

Apparently, the Riku Replica's plan to absorb my power failed miserably. All he succeeded in doing was destroying my body itself--as far as I can tell, most of the Twilight energy stored within, the source of my powers, is still intact. It's no surprise he was killed by the real Riku--though he believed that killing me gave him some new power that the real Riku never had, he was mistaken: the two of them were evenly matched at the time of their battle.

After thoroughly studying myself, I've finally decided on a name for this state of living energy.

A "Lost One," stripped of physical existence yet not truly dead. Invisible and immaterial to both the physical world of those who are alive and the unknown, soul-composed world beyond--if there is such a thing.

And, it seems, I am not the only Lost One in existence. Out of what had to be a freak accident, two masses of living energy passed each other by one day, drifting throughout the worlds on the edge of sanity and observing current events without the ability to intervene that we once had.

There is another who shares my matterless existence. One who has experienced this form of existence for many years longer than I have... she is the Keyblade wielder who we fought years before.

Apparently, Xigbar's energy vortex did not kill her--it destroyed her body, but the extreme gravity of it concentrated the Twilight energy she carried within her and allowed her soul to bond with that rather than the body which no longer existed.

That is the reason why her Keyblade disappeared before Xigbar could reach it--in her new state, the Keyblade had no way of drawing on her energy without damaging her. So it flashed and faded away, drifting off to wherever it is that Keyblades go when they are not being used.

It seems that this girl, once a person who would rush into a senseless battle with no reason beyond _"You aren't supposed to exist,"_ has changed during her time as a drifting being of energy. Though she no longer possesses a body to show the process of age, her mind has developed at a normal rate--and she's grown out of her senseless hatred of Nobodies, now that she too understands what it's like to be considered "nonexistant" by the majority of the population.

Though I can't say our first meeting was peaceful, it was somewhat of a relief for me--I am no longer alone. She's nothing special as far as intelligence goes, which seems to be typical of Keyblade wielders, but a conversation with a lesser mind is still far better than talking to yourself--or to nothing.

Ever since the day we met, we've traveled together, and I've begun to understand a bit more of my current state thanks to what I've heard from her. Apparently, she somehow feels _different_ when traveling near Twilight Town--this must have something to do with the fact that she is essentially made up of nothing but living Twilight energy now, much like I am. My assumption that Twilight Town is the point where the force of Twilight is the strongest was correct.

Perhaps that is the key to regaining a physical existence as well. If matter can be converted to energy, and energy to different types of energy, certainly it should be possible that energy can reverse and become matter again as well.

The problem is, is there enough Twilight energy, even in that place, to concentrate itself into not one but _two_ new bodies? When Nobodies are born, the body is already present--there is no need to convert energy into matter in that case, as the matter is there to begin with. But reversing the process to make a Lost One become a Nobody again...

Or a Nobody for the first time, in the girl's case... she was a complete being when she died, but her heart is most likely gone now that Kingdom Hearts itself has been destroyed.

And there's another problem--the difficulty of making those bodies form into the correct shapes. Nothing disturbs me more than the thought that, if something goes wrong, we could both end up in the same body.

Or I could end up stuck in the girl's body--or worse, the body of a lesser Nobody, like a Dusk.

That's what I've been calling her--"the girl." She hasn't told me her name, and I'm not sure if she even remembers it herself. Even if she does, she doesn't seem willing to tell me what it is. But that doesn't matter--the concept of having personal names becomes rather silly if only two of your kind exist in the first place.

Perhaps I'll save my experiment on regaining a body for a time after Vexen and Lexaeus awaken. They may discover my current state on their own, after all, and it's entirely possible that Vexen will somehow discover a "cure" for my bodyless existence.


	27. Radio

**Radio**

I've discovered a completely bizarre side-effect of my current state, one that I would have never expected if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes... or whatever it is that I see with now, anyway.

I had noticed before that I could communicate with my fellow Lost One, the girl, but I never stopped to think of _how_ that communication took place. I had at first assumed it was some kind of spiritual communication, arising from the soul--but I was incorrect. It seems that I have, instead, discovered the way that a being of living energy _talks._

Radio waves.

We talk using radio waves, on a frequency far beyond any sound that can be heard by the ears of a human, or even those of creatures with better ears such as mice, dogs, and birds.

That frequency, however, _can_ be heard by the portable radios that have become popular in Twilight Town recently.

I first noticed it when I heard it myself. The girl and I were talking, floating in the air near what I thought was an abandoned building, when suddenly I heard my voice--and the girl's--echoing back at us from inside the house. These voices were slightly distorted, and composed of audible sound waves rather than radio transmissions, but they were our voices all the same.

It didn't take long before we had utterly disturbed the group of teenagers hanging around the abandoned building--no matter what station they switched their radio to, all that could be heard were the distorted, ghostly voices of a girl who was supposed to be dead and a man who was not supposed to exist in the first place, talking on and on as if nothing was wrong with either of them.

It's been many years since I've seen children with looks on their faces like the ones the kids who heard us from the radio had. Even the one who seemed to be the most serious of the group, an oddly quiet silver-haired girl, had a face that would probably make her horribly embarrassed had she seen it for herself.

All it took was a single stop to our conversation, followed by a low growl of _"We are here, in the room with you, right now..."_ in my best imitation of Saix's voice, to drive the entire group out of the room screaming.

As it turned out, the distortion of the radio actually made my imitation sound a lot like Saix's voice when he was angry.

It's been nearly two years now, but I finally have found a way to communicate with those in the physical world.

Now, all I have to wait for is for Vexen or Lexaeus to turn on one of the many radios located throughout Castle Oblivion... and then, maybe, my imprisonment between life and death will finally be able to end.


	28. A Conversation

**A Conversation**

Stopping by Castle Oblivion once again to keep track of the development of the clones, the girl and I grew bored... and so, like many times, we talked.

"If we find a way to get our bodies back, would you become a member of the Organization?", I asked, "Well, what's left of it, anyway."

"Your Organization has done some terrible things," she answered, not really answering my question at all.

"I know."

"How can you just ignore everything bad the Organization did, and just go back to them again?"

"That was in the past. Blame Xemnas for the past crimes of the Organization, not the ones who outlived him."

"But Xemnas wasn't the one who did everything."

"He was our Superior," I said, growing slightly annoyed at her ignorance, "If we had disobeyed him, we would be dead. You can't blame us for our actions under Xemnas any more than you can blame a soldier in a war for following orders."

"But you have wills of your own," she replied, also slightly annoyed, "You aren't just mindless pawns of Xemnas."

"He promised us we would become complete beings," I said, "You wouldn't have turned down his offer either. No one in their right mind would."

"I guess not," she said, a hint of sadness in her voice. "I know what it's like to be incomplete now."

"Excuse me for sounding like Axel for a moment," I said, "But it's pretty crappy, huh?"

"Axel?"

"He was one of us who didn't make it. You've probably seen him during your time as a Lost One. He was the one with red, spikey hair all over the place. It stood out no matter where he went."

"Oh, him. The one who protected Sora."

"Yes, that's him. And it wasn't Sora he was trying to protect, it was Roxas."

"Roxas?"

"The youngest member of the Organization. Sora's Nobody. They re-combined with each other."

"Oh. So Axel really didn't care about Sora?"

"No, Axel couldn't have cared less if something happened to Sora," I said. Had she been paying attention _at all_ when she watched these things happening? "He only wanted to keep Roxas alive, and at that time Roxas was part of Sora."

"Oh."

"So, have you considered joining the Organization once we get our bodies back? It'll be better for all of us if you join."

"Maybe."

"Your heart is probably one of those vile Light creatures by now... either that or a Heartless."

"I know."

"If you find the right one and destroy it with that Keyblade of yours, you might be able to be complete once again."

"Will my Keyblade still work when I'm a Nobody?"

"Of course. Roxas still had his Keyblades, and he was a Nobody just like the rest of us."

"Even without a heart?"

"Do you listen to what I say at all?"

"Sorry. I just thought..."

She stopped for a second, apparently thinking about something, then continued.

"I thought you needed a heart to use a Keyblade... that they draw on the strength of your heart and amplify it."

"That's true... for those who have hearts. It works a bit differently for Nobodies."

"How?"

"Nobodies store Twilight energy in their bodies. A Keyblade isn't a stupid weapon--it knows how to find the source of energy, even when that source isn't in the same place as it was before."

"So that's why..."

She stopped again, thinking about something. A few seconds of silence passed, then she started talking again.

"That's why they return to your hand if something happens," she said, "They can tell if they aren't connected to the... energy source... anymore, and they want to go back to it."

"You could say it's like that."

"Do hearts work that way, too?"

"No."

"They don't?"

"Not usually. Once a heart leaves its body, it usually loses all individuality and drifts off... or transforms."

"Usually?"

"There have been those who lived on as beings of heart alone. First Xehanort, who retained his sense of self as a Heartless..."

"Xehanort? You mean Ansem?"

"He took Ansem's name in his insanity, yes."

"So he wasn't..."

"No. He was Ansem's top student and assistant in research for years, but Ansem himself and Xehanort are two entirely seperate people."

"Oh. I didn't know that."

"You miss a lot, don't you?"

"I can't be everywhere at once."

"True."

"Who else stayed themselves as just a heart? Besides Xehanort, I mean."

"There was only one... Sora. He remained that way for more than a year."

"That's all?"

"As far as I've seen, yes."

"So I'm pretty much doomed, huh..."

"No, just because your heart has lost its sense of self doesn't mean it cannot be re-combined with your body. If that was true, the Organization would be pointless."

"I thought the Organization just wanted hearts for their power."

"You're confusing the Organization itself with its leader again."

"Oh. Xemnas..." She seemed a bit angered by the mention of Xemnas. I found that a bit odd, considering that she too once wanted to destroy the Organization.

"Yes. Xemnas," I replied, "The true traitor of Organization XIII... we just didn't see it until it was far too late."

"You knew about his plans in time, though."

"Yes, I did. But I had no way to tell the others, remember."

"Axel knew, didn't he?"

"Perhaps. He certainly wasn't on the same side as Xemnas, at least."

This continued on for hours, with the girl asking simple questions about the history of Organization XIII that I could answer with barely a thought. The timers on the life-support pods nearby continued to tick down, growing steadily closer to the time when Lexaeus and Vexen would be released into the world once again.

There were only about three hours left on each timer.

The return of Organization XIII--at least in part--is growing close.


	29. New Vexen and Lexaeus

**New Vexen and Lexaeus**

The clones have become active.

With only ten minutes left on their timers, the two clones finally began to stir, and just as the timers hit zero... the liquid inside the life-support pods drained, and the pods--flowery decorations and all--opened up.

Vexen and Lexaeus have been reborn, now younger and stronger than they were before, but with the same mind and soul as always.

Lexaeus was the first to awaken, as he was killed shortly before Vexen--and also possibly because he was years younger than Vexen to begin with, so the rapid aging process didn't have to keep going for nearly as long before it was complete.

Apparently Lexaeus' DNA sample was taken roughly eight years ago, about seven years before Lexaeus died. This means he is now, physically at least, at an age of around twenty-eight years old. Vexen's clone is similarly younger--except his DNA was taken even earlier, as he is visibly younger than the Vexen who lived and died in Castle Oblivion. If I had to guess, I'd say that his current body is around the mid-forties in age--about ten years younger than the original Vexen was at death.

And, thanks to the fact that the new bodies have never been exposed to battle, they're both in better condition than their originals would have ever been by this time. There are no scars, no places where bone and muscle have been bruised and broken in the past--their bodies are in perfect condition.

Which is quite a stretch from the state Vexen was in before he died. His original body was exposed to far too many mishaps in the lab--he walked in a slightly hunched-over way, and had difficulty wielding his shield in battle thanks to the injuries his arms had sustained in the past.

The "new Vexen" is far from that feeble old man--he stands up straight, showing that he's easily taller than I am and no longer letting his cloak drag along the ground at his feet--and better yet, his mind is still just as sharp as ever.

Between the two of them, I have no doubts that they'll be able to correct my current state, and possibly even the girl's as well...

If only one of them would turn on a radio, somewhere, anywhere in the castle. That's my one weakness now, it seems--beings that can't pick up radio waves are completely impossible to communicate with, and in my current state I'm unable to simply turn on the radio myself.

The girl and I have checked the entire castle, and not one radio was left on by the last people to live here--apparently, Axel and Demyx made sure everything was safely turned off before they left.

They were the only two survivors, after all--Axel out of pure sneakiness, and Demyx because he was off playing Donkey Kong during the whole ordeal. I'm not sure if he even _slept_ the whole time--video games can do that, I guess.

This state I'm trapped in now is quite different than the ghosts of the legends. They were able to lift objects, fling them around rooms, wreak havoc on electrical systems, and generally cause all kinds of damage without even being visible to the beings they messed with. Despite not having any way to manipulate objects, they managed to do it anyway.

Just another example of how legend and reality rarely connect in any significant way, it seems.


	30. Contact

**Contact**

Once again, Lexaeus has proven himself to be a good friend and one of the Organization's most vital members.

He turned on the radio.

Halfway through his daily workout in his personal gym, he grew bored of the room's silence and decided that some music would help heighten his mood a little bit. Lexaeus had a very far-reaching taste in music, listening to everything from classical compositions hundreds of years old, all the way up to the latest rock song to come out of some skinny teenager from Twilight Town.

He even listened to a little bit of rap every now and then, but that particular type of music was a bit too fast-paced and youth-centered for Lexaeus. Though he didn't really mind when one the younger members turned their radios to the local rap station, he preferred other types of music when he had a choice.

Apparently he was in more of a fast-paced mood today, however, as he turned the dial on the old radio to Twilight Town's rap station. A teenager--as far as I could tell, it was probably the one named Seifer we saw earlier--was rapping about "running the streets," whatever it was that _that_ meant, while a chorus of several girls sang something in the background about money and expensive cars.

Expensive cars? In _Twilight Town?_

Another typical wannabe rapper, grossly exaggerating the events of his own life in order to appeal to clueless, talent-starved teenagers. _Good_ rap was actually enjoyable to listen to--this garbage, however, was nearly as bad as listening to those kids who think that because they cut themselves when they're sad, they have the right to sing about it.

In other words, it was the perfect time to interrupt and make contact with Lexaeus.

* * *

I was just about to reach over and silence the annoying teenager whose voice was, for some reason, blaring out of my radio when suddenly he stopped on his own.

Wait. That can't be right. Is the radio broken?

No, this is something else--I can still hear the static in the background. Perhaps the station is having some technical difficulties and went off the air for a while.

Either way, near-silence is a welcome change from that trash.

But no, that wasn't it. No matter what station I changed it to, still nothing but static... no, whispers. Nearly inaudible at the low volume I keep my radio set at, but perhaps they will be easier to hear if I turn the volume up higher.

There. Around the same level that the kids usually have these things set to. That should be enough.

"Lexaeus," the voice called. It was a ghostly-sounding voice, yet somehow it seemed to be close, as if its source was in the room with me. It was almost _familiar,_ somehow.

No, not just any ghostly voice. That was _Zexion._ But Zexion was dead. His cloning pod had malfunctioned, so his clone never developed. Vexen was probably working on it right now, actually.

"Zexion?", I called out to the empty room, "No, it can't be."

"It is," the voice called, "I'm here right now, Lexaeus--just not in a physical form."

"What? How can that be?"

"The Riku Replica. When he tried to absorb my power, he ended up destroying my body instead--but my soul bonded with the Twilight energy my body contained."

"You're... living energy?"

"Exactly. I can still see, hear, talk, and think... but any other interaction with the physical world is impossible. It seems that a Nobody requires a body before our powers can be used at all."

"This is incredible," I said, "You're alive, and you've discovered a new form of existence entirely... Vexen will want to hear of this."

"Yes, get Vexen," Zexion's voice called. I thought I heard a second voice, a higher-pitched one that must have belonged to a girl. Were there others with Zexion?

"Who else is here?"

"What?" Zexion's voice sounded confused.

"There's another one of you here. A girl. I heard her voice, faintly."

"Just as perceptive as ever, Lexaeus."

Zexion seemed to whisper something to another person, most likely the girl who apparently shared the room with him. Then, suddenly, the higher-pitched voice rang out again, this time clearer.

"I'm just a girl. I was trapped in this existence by..." She paused. It seemed that she had almost let out something she didn't want to reveal, something that began with a "Z" sound.

"Trapped like this by someone from the past."

"I see."

"You have to tell Vexen," Zexion called out once again, "He should be able to do something about this whole mess."

Zexion, too, was just as perceptive as ever. I waved goodbye to the radio just to be polite, as I had no way of knowing exactly where the two spirits were in the room. Then it was out the door and down the hall, toward Vexen's lab.

Zexion, and perhaps another, would soon be with us once again.


	31. The Plan

**The Plan**

"Vexen."

"Yes, Zexion," the old--well, _kind of_ old, now--man said, "Lexaeus has informed me about your current condition."

"Do you think it'll be possible to reverse my current state?"

"Perhaps. If I modify your clone's development process slightly, it may be possible for yor new body to hold the right amount of energy for you to re-enter it normally."

"You've already figured out how to get souls to re-enter their bodies, right?"

"Yes, that process worked perfectly, as you can see from Lexaeus and I. The only problem now is finding a way to either disperse the extra energy or get the body to contain it."

Vexen seemed to feel almost silly talking to a radio, but he was too excited by the discovery of another form of incomplete being--and the chance for him to prove his genius by reverting that being to a Nobody--to really let that bother him.

"So how long will this take?"

"The body will have to grow for nine months in order for it to bond with your soul properly. If the timing is even a tiny bit off, a new soul will enter the body instead... and you know what that would mean."

"There'd be another Zexion running around."

"Yes, exactly. It would be like the process that created the Riku Replica. Though he was exactly identical to Riku physically, the soul cannot be simply cloned--his soul was his own."

"So we need to make sure there are no mistakes."

"Precisely. It will take a few days to prepare the cloning device, and after that there's still at least six months more to wait before your soul will begin bonding with the growing body. You're free to wander wherever you want until then."

"Good. I've got a few more things to investigate before then."

Suddenly, Lexaeus spoke up for the first time in the entire conversation.

"Would you mind if I came along?", he asked. He was carrying a portable radio, for obvious reasons. "I'd like to see what's been keeping you from going insane all this time."

"You'll have to teleport carefully if you want to follow me in this state."

"That's no problem for me, as long as you stay within range of the radio and don't make too many sudden moves."

"I wasn't planning on stranding you anywhere. I've been alone long enough already."

"Let's go, then. Vexen needs peace and quiet to prepare for his experiment."

Lexaeus walked away from the weight-lifting table he had been lying on, and opened up one of the swirling portals into the Dark Passage. The girl and I floated after him, and then Vexen was alone.

"Finally, I can get some _real_ work done." The old scientist headed off to his lab, as always.


	32. New Clothes

**New Clothes**

"You'll have to change into something besides that black cloak if you're coming with us, Lexaeus," Zexion's voiced buzzed through on the radio.

He was right, of course. By this time, everyone in the World of Light--and probably much of the Twilight World as well--would recognize the familiar black cloaks of Organization XIII. And their reaction would be anything but positive.

Thanks to Xemnas and his plans for the Organization in the later years, it would be hard for me to travel much of anywhere without alerting the attention of people who would stop at nothing to destroy us yet again.

Sora, Riku, the duck and the dog, and that mouse King... bumping into any of them, especially in a group, would be dangerous--even lethal, in the case of Sora or Riku.

"Where do you think we'd be able to find clothes to fit me?", I asked. It may have seemed to be a bit of a stupid question, but it wasn't--very few people throughout the safer worlds were as large as I, either in height or in musculature. Finding clothes that fit, other than the black cloaks, could prove extremely difficult.

Zexion's voice crackled through again, a bit clearer than before. "True. Finding clothes for Vexen or myself wouldn't be a problem at all, but you..."

He seemed quiet for a while, but suddenly the other voice--the girl, whose name I hadn't been told even now--piped in.

"Agrabah," she said, "There's some pretty big guys there, and the style of clothing they wear isn't one that would really draw much attention on most worlds."

Perhaps Zexion was underestimating the girl's intelligence when he had talked about her earlier--she had a good point. I held out my hand and opened up the exit to the Dark Passage that we were currently traveling through, then stepped out...

...and immediately found myself waist deep in hot sand. How annoying.

But a good chance to test out my new body's strength, perhaps. I flexed my muscles and, as I had done many years before, focused my powers on the sand around my body. A shockwave of energy flew outward from my body in a circle, rippling through the sand and sending it erupting into the air as if a bomb had been dropped right there where I was standing. My legs were free, so I floated up in the air and watched the sand sift back down into its usual position.

After about thirty seconds, there was no sign that anything out of the ordinary had ever happened in that spot. I pulled up my hood, floated over to a more stable section of the sands, and then began walking--if the black cloak would stir up the locals, being seen levitating in public would send them into a total panic. No need to risk that.

After all, we're only here for some clothes.

"Stick to the less-crowded alleyways," Zexion called out, "We may have never had many operations on this world, but there's still a good chance that someone might have heard of the Organization before."

"Yes," I replied, "And even if none of them know of Organization XIII, seeing a large man in a black cloak could still make them rather suspicious."

By this time, we had reached the outskirts of the city. It was mostly made up of simple stone buildings, with carved-out windows and plain wooden doors. The roofs were made in such a way that someone could easily stand on top of them without causing any problems, and some of them even had small stairwells leading up to them. In the distance, there was a marketplace, with small canvas coverings protecting their wares from being baked by the sun or covered with bird droppings.

The sand, the stone walkways, the stone buildings...

The entire place was saturated with the element of Earth. If not for the scorching heat, I would have almost felt at peace in a place like this. In its current state, however, I can't help but think Axel would have liked it better.

"Hey, are you paying any attention at all, Lexaeus?"

Zexion's voice jolted me back to reality. I had a habit of being lost in my own thoughts sometimes, too busy thinking and observing my surroundings to say or do anything--it was both a strength, in ways, and a weakness.

Fortunately, none of the locals had noticed my presence in the time I had been standing in place, so I continued onward toward the nearest marketplace.

As it turns out, there was a suitable clothing store nearby. But there was a problem--I wasn't carrying any money with me.

"His stand looks a bit worn, doesn't it?"

Zexion's voice again, this time whispering just loud enough for me to hear--and just quiet enough that the clothing vendor wouldn't notice. He was right, of course--the simple wooden stand _was_ in bad condition. Perhaps if I fixed it up a bit, or even built a new one, the vendor would provide me with a "free gift" of sorts.

"Greetings, traveler!", the vendor called out to me, apparently not bothered in the slightest by my size or cloak, "Come to buy some fine clothes?"

"Yes," I answered, walking over to the stand and leaning down a bit so I wouldn't be too intimidating, "But first, I must tell you--I have no money."

"Well, if you have no money, I'm afraid you won't be able to buy anything."

"True. But, do you think you could make an exception?"

"What? What are you talking about? I can't just _give_ these away."

"I have a bit of skill in construction. If you provide me with the clothes I need, I could build you a new stand."

A chunk of wood fell off the corner of the stand, and part of the canvas tore. Apparently the current one didn't have much longer before it would _need_ to be replaced.

"Hmm," the vendor said, scratching his bearded chin and looking around at his stand. Another piece of wood fell down, bouncing off of his turban and falling to the ground.

"I think I could make a deal in that case."

"Good. Excuse me for a moment."

I immediately went to work in a nearby alley, just out of sight of everyone nearby. There I used my powers to lift the sand up into the air, compressing it into support poles far stronger than the rickety wooden ones the man's stand was currently held up by. Lifting more sand up from the surrounding areas and pulling it in in front of me, I constructed a sturdy stone table, roughly the size of the one he currently used. Reaching over to a nearby clothesline, I removed a canvas that wasn't currently being used and tied it to the support poles, then picked the whole thing up and carried it out into the street once again.

I did say I was good at construction, after all, not that I would do it the same way as anyone else.

The vendor was speechless--in the time it would take for an average human to carry a stand like that to its new position, I had not only done that but constructed the stand from scratch as well.

He moved aside, allowing me to set up his new workplace for him, and didn't say a word the whole time I picked out several sets of clothes. Apparently, my work was worth much more than a single outfit--reassuring. I was afraid it would take longer to regain my former skill in this new body, but it seems my worries were unfounded.

"Thank you," I said quickly, turning and walking away from the vendor. I ducked back into the alley again, this time ducking behind some empty barrels as well to remain unseen, and removed my cloak and the clothes underneath. I thought I heard the girl gasp slightly as I sat down the radio--apparently she hadn't expected me to strip down to my underwear, but what else would someone do when changing into new clothes?

It wasn't long before I had put on the new clothes. They were surprisingly loose, but that was good--tight-fitting clothes were never my favorite, and even the Organization's cloaks were a bit too tight around the chest for my tastes.

After putting on one of the turbans I had picked up, I folded up my old clothes and the others I had "bought" and stuffed them into the deep pockets of my new pants. The only thing I still had on from before was my boots and gloves, but it was unlikely that anyone would notice those--at least not as much as they'd notice a hooded black cloak.

I picked up the radio and walked out of the alley in my new clothes, letting out a small chuckle at the girl's reactions to my "stripping" earlier, and then headed back out to the desert.

"So, Zexion, where are we going now?"

"Disney Castle. There's something in the basements I'd like to show you."


	33. Catacombs

**Catacombs**

"So, Zexion," I said, stepping out of the Dark Passage, "Exactly how are we going to get into this secret basement you mentioned?"

"Well, we certainly won't be able to get in through the front door. As far as I can tell, there's only one way to get to the lower levels of the castle from the main section, and that's a hidden door directly behind the King's throne."

"So we'll need to teleport into the basement itself."

"Exactly. We're going to need to get close enough to the castle for you to teleport in, but far enough away that nobody will suspect anything."

"Yes," I said, "Even with my new clothes, it's unlikely that they'll just let me go wherever I want in there." I continued to walk down the road leading up to the castle, passing through what looked like a flower garden of some type on the way. The castle itself wasn't nearly as impressive as Castle Oblivion, but at least the landscaping was better.

Marluxia would've thrown a fit over that, if he were here.

I continued to approach the castle, looking out to make sure nobody was around first. After I was absolutely sure the way was clear, I crossed the bridge over the castle's moat and began walking around the castle itself.

"Where should I be before I attempt to teleport in?"

"Near the back of the castle. The stairway down from the King's chamber goes that way, so the basement levels most likely start around there too."

I held on to the radio just tightly enough to make sure it went along with me, then concentrated on the lower parts of the castle walls. Eventually, I found a spot that seemed like it would be hollow on the inside--most likely the entrance to the basement.

And then, in an instant, I disappeared from outside the castle and reappeared in a dark room with stairs leading up in one direction and an old, rusty door in the other.

Apparently, my teleportation abilities hadn't suffered any from having a cloned body, either. Vexen got everything right this time--and there weren't any kids with giant keys around to show up out of nowhere and mess everything up, either.

At least, I _hoped_ there weren't. It was easy to guess what those foolish little children would do if they found out that there were still members of the Organization left alive, regardless of what we're up to.

"This is the place," Zexion buzzed in, "Next up is probably the tomb of the past kings, and a little way after that should be the stairs going down to the next level."

I opened up the rusty door and stepped into the next room, leaving giant footprints behind in the dust that covered the floor here. I had to duck to avoid a mass of cobwebs, and noticed several dust-coated plaques on each of the decorated coffins that laid in the room. This must have been the tomb Zexion mentioned.

I walked down the next hallway, opening another door and being greeted by yet another tomb, this one smaller than the first but with only one coffin--much more intricately-decorated and made of gold. The name on the plaque was so covered in dust and dirt that I couldn't even read a bit of it, so I walked on past and headed down the stairs.

"The library floor," Zexion said, "Every room is like another whole library." He was right--every door I opened revealed another series of bookshelves, stuffed to the edges with old leather-bound books of all shapes and sizes. Most of the shelves looked like they hadn't been touched in a least a decade, if not longer.

"You mind if I stop and take a look at some of these shelves?", I asked, looking down at the radio. Zexion and the girl weren't actually in the radio, of course, but it was impossible to tell _where_ they actually were. They didn't seem to mind.

"Go ahead," he said, "There's no need to rush, after all. We're probably the first ones down here in years, and that probably won't change anytime soon."

I sat the radio down on an old wooden table and went over to one of the larger bookshelves, looking through the hundreds of old books. Some were familiar--books I had read in school, or those I had studied from during my time as one of Ansem's researchers, or those I recognized from the libraries in Castle Oblivion. Even a few of Larxene's favorites were in there, though I doubt anyone in this particular castle liked them very much.

Others were books so old I had never seen a single copy of them--tales of ancient warriors, religious writings from sects that hadn't been heard of in hundreds of years, books of maps and instructions for repairing various objects, and much more. I picked out a few of the more interesting-looking books, stuffed them in my second pocket, and then picked up the radio.

"I'm done for now, though I'll probably come back here later," I said, making sure the books all fit in the large pocket, "Let's keep going down."

I left the library, walking down the hallway and heading for the next stairwell going down. We were now very deep beneath the castle--and the stairs just kept going. By the next time I was walking on an even floor rather than stairs, we had to have been at least a quarter of a mile below the surface.

"You still there?", I asked to the radio, not hearing Zexion's voice at all--only static. I wasn't sure how fast he was capable of moving now, so I had to make sure.

"Yes, we're both here," he replied, "It seems there was some interference during our trip down the stairs, and I couldn't get through to the radio."

"Good. I was afraid something had happened to you two." Well, if anything really _could_ happen to someone composed of nothing but energy and a soul, that is.

I opened up the door leading into yet another hallway, and then kept walking. Obviously both Zexion and the girl were still present, but it seemed the girl wasn't talking as much as she had been before.

She wasn't _still_ embarrassed about the incident back at Agrabah, was she? Silly girl.

"So, what should I expect from this floor?", I asked to Zexion. He'd apparently been here before, so if anything dangerous was lurking down here, he would know.

"Nothing much, until after we get past the caved-in part that is," he said, "You'll need to clear away some rubble to get through, but that should be no problem for you, Lexaeus."

"Of course not. A little bit of rubble is nothing."

It wasn't long before we came to the blockade that he mentioned--the celing had caved in at some point, sending stone blocks, dirt, and various rocks falling into the corridor. It was nothing special as far as cave-ins go--I probably wouldn't even have to use my powers to get through.

I gripped onto one of the large stone blocks, figuring out how solid the pile of dirt was first, and then stepped back. I rushed forward, and a second later I was on the other side of the cave-in, which was no longer much of a cave-in since a large, man-shaped hole was now carved through the entire thing. My clothes were a bit roughed-up now, but otherwise I was completely unharmed.

"Nice doorway," the girl said. It was the first thing she'd said the whole time, of course, but still better than saying nothing--or constantly asking questions. That could get annoying after a while.

"Now we're coming up to the reason I came here," Zexion said, his voice cracking slightly as it came in through the radio, "The last room on this hallway has some ancient scrolls I'd like to have a look at."

Scrolls? Must be something really special if Zexion would drag me all the way down here just to get them--which is no surprise after seeing some of the books in the libraries above. If things further down in the basement floors were older, then these scrolls would have to be ancient--hundreds of years old, at least, and probably well-preserved based on the condition of the books.

I entered the last room, letting the ancient door creak open, and stepped in, causing dust to float up through the air. There were a few old banners on the wall with odd symbols on them, most of them half-decayed from age. And in the corner, above an old scroll rack, was the one label in the room that was not covering in dust.

"Scrolls of Darkness."

"Yes, I discovered them a while ago, before you and Vexen returned," Zexion said soon after I sat down the radio. "They probably contain secrets that none of us could even imagine."

I looked through the scrolls, noticing that there only seemed to be about six different scrolls--the rest were copies of those six, or damaged scrolls that were probably impossible to read by now.

"Most of them appear to be copies," I said, taking the six that seemed to be in the best condition out of the rack, "But these six are all different from each other, and in fairly good condition."

"Let's head back to the lab," Zexion said, "It should be easier to decipher them in a brighter room, and with Vexen's help."


	34. The First Scroll

**Author's Note:** Xehanort's backstory! Well, part of it anyway. Yep, he wasn't always the Darkness-obsessed, little-boy-possessing psychopath you saw in the games.

* * *

**The First Scroll**

"Do... you even _realize_ what you've just... found?", Vexen screamed, breathing heavily in between words and staring at the scrolls in front of him, never blinking. Apparently, Vexen was excited by Zexion's discovery.

Maybe a bit _too_ excited.

"These scrolls are the oldest writings I've ever seen that weren't written on a block of stone! We've uncovered a piece of history that most people didn't even remember _existed_ in the first place!"

Vexen almost seemed to be _skipping_ across the lab, though his long cloak covered it up--mostly. He picked up various translation guides from his bookshelves and moved various tools out of the way so that the scrolls could be unrolled and read safely. Once he had prepared the lab for them, he began to carefully unroll the first of the scrolls.

_Very_ carefully--they were old, after all, and Vexen knew all about how easy it was to damage things that were old.

A few minutes passed, with nobody saying anything, until Vexen finally pulled himself up off of the table, shoved two of the three translation guides out of the way, and opened up the third one.

"It's written in the ancient language of the World of Darkness," he said, pointing to the unrecognizable symbols the scroll's writing was made up of, "Fortunately, I still have a guide to that particular language left over from before the city in the World of Darkness was overrun."

He flipped through the book, writing down various things on a clipboard that he had set up off to side. Half an hour passed, and then he finally turned his attention to the scroll he had unraveled before.

"Hmmm," he mumbled, "History... darkness... war..."

"Hearts... white creatures of light... invaders... warrior... Xehanort?"

Vexen paused on one word that was very familiar to him. _Xehanort._ Why would a scroll this old mention the name of the person who eventually became Xemnas?

"I doubt this is the Xehanort we know," I added, "No reason to assume that they're the same without any proof."

"True," Vexen replied, turning toward the larger man, "Xehanort is surely an unusual name, but there's no reason to believe that the Xehanort we know was the only one who's ever had that name. Perhaps this is one of his ancestors."

"No," Zexion added from the radio, "Look further down. There's a picture."

Zexion was right. The picture wasn't just _similar_ to the Xehanort we knew--it was identical, right down to his eye color, facial features, and even hairstyle. The only thing different was his clothes, which appeared somewhat similar to those of some primitive tribes on other worlds.

"It _is_ him," Vexen said, apparently a bit shocked by this discovery.

"What else does the scroll say?", the girl added in, "About Xehanort, I mean."

"Hmm, let me see...", Vexen said, going back to his translation guide as he looked over the scroll. He stopped suddenly, apparently coming to something he had not expected to see.

"This scroll," he said, "It's from nearly eight hundred years ago. But how... Xehanort... how could Xehanort be that old? He appeared to still be in his youth when Ansem first found him..."

"These scrolls hold many secrets, it seems," I said, looking closely at the picture of Xehanort, "This symbol, on his necklace. What is it?"

It looked like a black circle, with a hole in the center and a spike pointing down from the lower edge of it. There were also two "arms" sticking out to the sides, bars pointing left and right, also with spikes pointing down from them. It was an unfamiliar symbol to me, but perhaps Vexen had seen it somewhere before.

"I'm not sure...", Vexen started, but then his eyes popped up suddenly and he seemed to jump a little, rushing back over to his bookshelf. Apparently he had just remembered something.

"Let me see," he mumbled, searching through the books, "Where did I put it this time, I know I've seen that before..."

Finally, he pulled out a book. It wasn't particularly large, at least not compared to most of Vexen's collection, and seemed only a little bit on the old side--not nearly as ancient as the books or scrolls we had collected from the catacombs.

"Darkness," he said, flipping through the book and finally stopping on one page, "That necklace is the ancient symbol of Darkness, used by those who saw Darkness as a neutral or even beneficial force rather than labeling it as evil like many do today. This predates the more-familiar Heartless symbol by at least several millenia."

"Darkness," I mumbled, "Xehanort always was obsessed with it, it seems. Was he somehow recovering his ancient memories after all, even when our experiments on him failed to show any recovery?"

"No," Zexion said, "Xehanort couldn't remember anything, no matter what we or Ansem tried. He became obsessed with Darkness only after we began studying it ourselves."

* * *

Hours passed, with Vexen and I studying the mysterious scroll while Zexion and the girl watched from... wherever it was in the room that the two of them were. By this time I had changed back into my Organization cloak--the clothes from Agrabah were torn up a bit from my removal of the cave-in earlier, and Vexen didn't like having those dirty clothes in his lab.

Apparently, Xehanort was originally a member of an ancient tribe living somewhere in the World of Darkness. This was long before Ansem's experiments, so Heartless did not yet lurk in the shadows of that world, and Nobodies did not yet wander the world attacking everyone who came near out of insanity.

It was a peaceful time, where all the people of that world could dwell in the lands of Darkness as they saw fit, without any threat from the outside.

However, the people of this world knew that a threat could one day develop, even if none existed at the moment, and so Warriors of Darkness were chosen. Generations passed, and many great Warriors grew into old age without any such threat.

But then a threat came. Creatures born of the Light, taking the shapes of insects and destroying everything in their path. They were led by an ancient and powerful being known as Gil-Neithev, and would attack any being that held even the slightest amount of Darkness in their heart without provocation. They were like a plague.

And as they approached, the world seemed to grow hotter. The waters dried up, and rain came more and more slowly. It even seemed, at times, that the sky itself, not exposed to the light from the world's sun, was growing brighter.

Many Warriors of Darkness fought, but the creatures didn't stop coming. The tribe of the Darkness was massacred, with only a small group of survivors leaving the place in one piece.

However, one Warrior showed more potential than any other of his age. He was a dark-skinned young man named Xehanort, with silvery-colored hair and orange eyes. These physical features may be rare in the worlds we know, but in the World of Darkness they were quite common--Xehanort, among his own tribe, was actually rather average in appearance.

But despite appearances, Xehanort was well beyond average in combat. Even at the age of seventeen, he easily showed more skill than most of the warriors twice his age. He alone was powerful enough to earn the right to use the tribe's most powerful sword, a blade which could channel the Darkness itself to become more powerful.

Xehanort would go on to singlehandedly destroy hundreds of thousands of the Light creatures, fighting his way through the ruined World of Darkness without ever slowing down. He grew ever stronger, capable of controlling the Darkness as well as fighting with his weapon, fists, and feet.

By the age of twenty, he was the strongest Warrior of Darkness the tribe had ever produced.

Fighting further and further away from his home, it became obvious that he was forcing the creatures of the Light to back down. The more powerful varieties were coming after him more often, but also fleeing battle before they could be destroyed. Even weaker types would often skitter away at the sight of him.

He was getting close.

Ten more years passed, and Xehanort had traveled the World of Darkness, all the way to the far side where the sun's light reached. The light and heat of this wasteland burned him, but he shrouded himself in the Darkness for protection and trudged onward into the stronghold of Light.

He battled Gil-Neithev one-on-one, forcing the being of Light away from his world.

And then, he and several other Warriors of Darkness followed Gil-Neithev, leaving the World of Darkness entirely and heading through the great door that split the barrier between Light and Dark. Beyond that door, they found a splintered world, divided among many tiny planets with only a small chunk of their former world still remaining on each.

This place was a corrupted world, ruined and shattered into pieces by Gil-Neithev and the plague of Light creatures that followed it. Xehanort was disgusted.

The last remaining Warriors of Darkness traveled to a distant world, one which currently existed as a planetoid of islands surrounded by water on all sides, and chased Gil-Neithev down. The being of Light was caught in a corner, forced deep within the cave system inside the world--to a strange place where the heart-like core of the world rested.

Gil-Neithev made a feeble attempt to absorb the world's heart, but the Warriors of Darkness cut its attempts short with a massive burst of Darkness--causing the heart itself to respond with an equally-powerful burst, tearing Gil-Neithev's essence apart and causing it to disperse into particles of light.

But surely a being as ancient as Gil-Neithev couldn't be destroyed by a simple barrage of Darkness. The group of warriors, led by Xehanort, left the core's chamber and used their powers to create a door, locked by a keyhole that no normal key could open, and left the World of Light for their original home.

Except, that is, for Xehanort. Vowing to protect the World of Light in case Gil-Neithev ever resurfaced, he remained in that shattered realm, moving from world to world using the Dark Passage. He finally settled on the distant world of the Elves--a place where he could easily observe the current events of the other worlds without being seen himself.

He was never seen again by anyone in the World of Darkness.

* * *

We had reached the end of the first scroll, a simple account of Xehanort's ancient past. Surely this scroll had answered many questions of the past, but it had also brought yet more questions to the surface of our minds.

How could Xehanort, a normal man in almost every way, have lived hundreds of years into the future?

Why did he appear to be no older than twenty when he first arrived in Radiant Garden, though he was apparently older than that already at the time Gil-Neithev was defeated?

Perhaps the other scrolls hold the answer.


	35. The Second Scroll

**Author's Note:** And Xnort's backstory continues... yes, Xnort. It's pronounced like "snort" only with a Z sound.

* * *

**The Second Scroll**

As Vexen rolled the first of the scrolls back up and carried it off to a safe place in his lab, Lexaeus began to slowly unroll the second one.

This scroll seemed newer than the first somehow, and it was written by someone else--I could tell by the difference in handwriting. The first scroll was written by someone in a hurry, and had various slips and sections that had been erased and written over again.

The second one, on the other hand, seemed to have been written so slowly that each letter had the chance to dry before the next one was on the paper. Whoever wrote it had a long time to do so, and made sure there were no mistakes.

And, there was another difference--it was written in the language of the Elves, not the ancient tongue of the World of Darkness. Lexaeus and I had picked up a bit of this language from Xaldin, but neither of us knew enough of it to read the entire scroll--so once again, Vexen had to translate for us.

"Apparently," he said, reading over the scroll's first few lines, "This scroll has a title, unlike the previous one."

"A title?", the girl asked over the radio, "Why would that be important?"

"You'll know when I tell you _what_ the title is," Vexen snapped at her, though he still seemed to feel a bit odd about talking to a radio.

He ran his hand over the large-print words at the top of the page, and slowly read them out loud: "Memories of Xehanort."

"What?", Lexaeus asked, "Was this scroll written by Xehanort himself?"

"It's too early to tell," Vexen answered, reading over the scroll carefully, "But I believe so. According to the previous scroll, he was said to have settled on the world of the Elves, correct?"

Lexaeus nodded. The girl and I probably would have, as well, had we been in physical bodies at the time.

"Well, it is written in their language," Vexen continued, "And the style of writing itself is very different. Even if not written by Xehanort himself, it seems to have been written _about_ him, about what happened after the defeat of Gil-Neithev..."

With Vexen serving as our translator once again, we all read the scroll.

* * *

It was five years since the defeat of Gil-Neithev when Xehanort first noticed that something about him was _different._ He was growing into his late thirties, but he had not changed physically since the day Gil-Neithev's remains were sealed away behind the Keyhole on that remote world.

He had somehow stopped aging.

None of the Elves had any idea what was happening to him--there were stories that said the ancient ancestors of the Elves did not age, but the stories never gave any explanation as to _why_ this was, or the reason why the current Elves aged just like anyone else.

At first Xehanort went to doctors, but none of them detected anything abnormal about him. He was in perfect condition physically, and his mental state seemed normal as well. Besides the fact that he hadn't aged a day since he was thirty, Xehanort had nothing wrong with him that they could find.

Xehanort searched the world for anyone who could help him, and eventually decided to leave the world of the Elves in search of someone else who might be able to help. He talked with many people throughout the other worlds, but none of them had any idea what could have made him stop aging.

That was when he noticed another thing that was happening--he was beginning to forget everything. At this point he had forgotten bits and pieces of his younger years, back before he began training to become a Warrior of Darkness, but as time went on more and more memories began to dissolve away.

Finally, he found someone who figured out what was going on--apparently, just as he and the other Warriors of Darkness had destroyed Gil-Neithev, the being of Light had put some sort of curse on Xehanort. Though the wizards he talked to could tell that Xehanort had been cursed in some way, they had no means of curing it--so once again, he returned to the World of Darkness.

By this time, his tribe had moved somewhere else, leaving only a few hermits behind in the ancient city that they had lived in for a long time. Fortunately for Xehanort, several of these hermits happened to be his fellow Warriors of Darkness from the war against the Light creatures--but they were now seventy or eighty years old.

The other Warriors of Darkness teamed up to help Xehanort, combining their powers in an attempt to remove Xehanort's curse. Unfortunately, nothing they did seemed to have any effect. Xehanort continued to suffer memory loss, and he was still completely unaffected by age.

Xehanort traveled around for many years, seeing all of his friends and relatives--and even the next few generations after them--grow old and die all around him. Eventually, he returned to the World of Light and visited the world of the Elves once again, hoping that someone lived there now who could help.

As it turns out, there was someone there who discovered a way to reverse the effects of the curse--unfortunately, one of the side-effects would be a complete loss of all memory, no matter how much Xehanort had lost due to the curse's effects before.

Xehanort waited many years, but finally it was too late to wait any longer. The only one who had discovered a cure for Gil-Neithev's curse was growing old, and if Xehanort wasn't cured now, it was possible that he would never be.

The process worked at first, but it wasn't instantaneous--and there were unexpected side-effects. Rather than continuing to age normally, Xehanort began to de-age very slowly and his memory had somehow stayed intact... for now.

* * *

It was at this point that the story told by the scroll had abruptly stopped. Apparently, there was a gap of around three hundred years between the last known point of Xehanort's history and the time when he was found by Ansem in the streets of Radiant Garden.

What could have happened in those years...?


	36. The Third Scroll

**The Third Scroll**

I unrolled the third scroll, being careful not to damage the brittle old paper than it was written on. You had to be extremely careful when dealing with anything this old, after all.

"Hmmm," I said to myself, "Not much mention of Xehanort yet on this scroll..."

Lexaeus leaned over slightly, to see the scroll easier. Unlike the previous one, this third scroll was written in the language of the World of Darkness once again, so I didn't need to bother with the translation guide for the Elven language. I had already written a quick translation of various words on my clipboard, to eliminate the need for switching back and forth between the scroll and the translation guide very often, and it was working fairly well--only a few words were difficult to translate, and they were mostly old words that weren't in use in the more-recent version of the language.

"It seems," I said, "That we've discovered a scroll detailing the events in the World of Darkness after the defeat of Gil-Neithev. Apparently, the war wasn't over just because the primary enemy was gone... in fact, it had spread to the World of Twilight as well."

* * *

When Xehanort was away in the World of Light, fighting Gil-Neithev, the people of the World of Darkness had managed to fight off the remaining Light creatures, forcing them through the second of the enormous doors that connected the worlds to each other.

But within the world beyond that door, the World of Twilight, another battle was raging. Gil-Neithev had actually attacked the Twilight World soon after ruining the World of Light, but had left to deal with the World of Darkness before it was finished with its previous target.

The people of the Twilight World fought off the Light creatures, but it seemed that those creatures were no longer the only enemy. Some of their own kind had betrayed them, and become obsessed with the Light--even going so far as to aid the Light creatures rather than their own families.

The three initial traitors soon became an army of Light-crazed warriors, each of which could control the Light creatures much like Gil-Neithev had done years before. The people of the Twilight World knew they couldn't defeat this new force on their own, so they sent messengers to the far corners of the world, searching for anyone that could help.

And help came surprisingly quickly. A group of strange wizards, skilled both in magic and in metalworking, apparently had met the messengers on the way there, and had changed their course toward the last stronghold of the Twilight World's people soon afterward.

Working deep within the basement of the castle, these wizards constructed several strange weapons that had never been seen before--key-like in shape, and oddly powerful considering their appearance. At first, three of these Keyblades were constructed--one symbolizing Light, one for Darkness, and one for the Twilight in-between the two forces--but soon it became obvious that three would not be enough.

More Keyblades were constructed, given to the most powerful warriors of the Twilight World, but then something terrible happened--the enemy learned how to construct Keyblades of its own.

But these were not the same as the Keyblades made by the wizards. Whereas each of the wizards' Keyblades had a small chain on the end with some symbol or object attached, the Keyblades made by the enemy were different, and lacked this keychain.

They were also different in the way they were created. While the wizards created their Keyblades from ordinary metal infused with massive amounts of magic, the Keyblades of the enemy were made by extracting and purifying the hearts of those they had killed in battle. Though Gil-Neithev's influence was necessary to produce Light creatures with any significant amount of strength, it was not required to synthesize hearts into a Keyblade--the traitors could easily do this themselves, by using their control over the power of Light.

The warriors of the Twilight World were slaughtered. The battlefield grew more and more desert-like as the Light creatures advanced, their army fronted by the three greatest warriors who fought in the name of Gil-Neithev. Even those who were given the initial three Keyblades could not hold out for long--though the majority of the Light army was destroyed by these three warriors, the three leaders of the enemy army were simply too powerful for them.

Even the great war-machines, constructed by the wizards after Keyblades failed, were unable to defeat the three--their Keyblades were more powerful than the simpler ones held by footsoldiers, and no simple robot could stand up to them for long.

It seemed that the Twilight World was doomed. The three Keyblade wielders were exhausted, forced further away from their home base by their enemies and with no support from robots or other soldiers. Eventually, they too were killed, and their Keyblades fell to the ground and became imbedded into it, much like those of the enemy's warriors who had also fallen in battle.

The three enemy warriors stole the Keyblades, preparing for one last assault on the Twilight World's castle, when suddenly someone else appeared in the distance.

Xehanort.

The one who had defeated Gil-Neithev itself, the Warrior of Darkness, had come to the Twilight World as well to finish off the last remnants of Gil-Neithev's attack on existence. The three enemy warriors attacked, but their stolen Keyblades refused to stay with them for long and quickly disappeared. Now only armed with a single Keyblade each, they were no match for Xehanort--he slashed through their armor with his sword, flung each of them to the ground, and then summoned a storm of Darkness large enough to encompass almost the entire battlefield.

When the Darkness faded and the deserted landscape became visible once again, the three warriors were gone--there was not even any sign left of their Keyblades. The Keyblades of fallen warriors had been destroyed by the blast, which uprooted them from the ground and allowed the hearts they were composed of to become free once again.

Almost as soon as Xehanort appeared, he left again, creating an opening to the Dark Passage and returning to his own world--the World of Darkness--never to be seen again in the Twilight World.

Xehanort had now saved three worlds--may his legacy be remembered forever.

* * *

"Too late for that, I guess," Zexion said, "All that anyone remembers of Xehanort now is the psychopath who nearly _destroyed_ the World of Light."

"Yes," Lexaeus added, "It's too bad. The Xehanort we met barely had any of that warrior from the past left in him."


	37. The Fourth Scroll

**The Fourth Scroll**

Vexen rolled up the previous two scrolls as carefully as possible, then moved them out of the way as he began to open up the next scroll.

It was different than the rest, slightly--the ink was actually a very dark blue rather than black, and the scroll itself was made of a different material. It also didn't seem quite as old as the first three scrolls, as none of the writing was difficult to read yet due to age.

And at the very top of the scroll, before the writing began, was a familiar blue seal, shaped like a stylized heart with the lines curving in slightly at the top. The symbol has been used for many years, and was recognizable everywhere in the three Worlds as representing one of many things.

Some saw the blue heart as a symbol of the heart itself; others, the power that hearts could hold; and still others saw it as a representation of Kingdom Hearts, the enormous moon-like structure composed of the hearts of those who had lost theirs, usually due to death.

"It seems that this scroll contains the history of Kingdom Hearts itself," Vexen said, running a finger over parts of the scroll. Like the first and third scrolls, it was written in the language of the World of Darkness, so Vexen had no trouble reading it now--he had already translated two scrolls in this language, after all, so one more, and a more recent one at that, was no problem.

* * *

After the defeat of Gil-Neithev, it was expected that the creatures of Light would stop appearing in such numbers. However, after hundreds of years had passed, they began to resurface. These new creatures were smaller than before, but easily recognizable as the same ones they had fought off before.

Something had to be done.

The current generation of Warriors of Darkness, as well as several newcomers who had trained under great wizards from the World of Twilight, traveled across the world, heading toward the sun-exposed side where the creatures of Light seemed to be coming from.

There, they discovered the origins of those creatures--hearts, it seemed, entered the World of Darkness upon the deaths of their bodies, and the vast majority of them seemed to be drawn toward the light side of the planet. Those who didn't reach this side, and instead stopped on the sunless side, became entirely different creatures--black-skinned, insect-like, and with glowing eyes.

Similar to the creatures of Light, but very different--they seemed to be mostly harmless, unless they attacked in large groups, and those who controlled the Darkness could also give them basic commands.

And when the two types of creatures met, chaos broke out. They rushed at each other in what appeared to be a psychotic rage, and immediately attempted to tear each other apart. The Light creatures were stronger, so usually they were the ones who survived these encounters--but occasionally, if they met somewhere further away from the sun's light, a swarm of the Darkness creatures would outnumber the others and destroy them.

Regardless of which creatures these hearts would become, they had to be stopped. Something had to be done to prevent hearts from drifting into either the Darkness or the Light, something that would stabilize them and keep them in their natural state rather than allowing them to be corrupted.

Though the people of the World of Darkness preferred the force which saturated their own world, they realized that a balance needed to exist in order for peace to exist--too much Darkness, just like too much Light, could be destructive.

Those who had studied under the wizards from the Twilight World combined their skills in magic and metalworking to construct a massive orb, covered in various strange symbols and crystals of various types. The Warriors of Darkness imbued the center of the orb with the power of Darkness, and those from the Twilight World saturated the outer layer with Light so that hearts would be drawn to it after the deaths of their bodies.

The group carried this enormous device to the site of the new city that their people had built after fleeing their previous home, and then the Twilight wizards activated the orb, causing it to lift itself into the air magically. Almost immediately, the effect of the device could be seen--hearts, which would drift over the land every few minutes most of the time, were now immediately drawn to the outside of the metal orb.

They clustered around it, and as more and more hearts built up, the orb become more and more covered--and the hearts began to form into one enormous heart, centered on the place where the orb floated in the air.

Now, hearts had a place to go after death--no longer doomed to transform into destructive insects, only to be destroyed again, causing the process to repeat almost endlessly until the heart's energy was so drained that it would simply dissipate into the air.

The wizards from the Twilight World decided to name this place "Kingdom Hearts."

* * *

"It was... Kingdom Hearts was...", the girl stuttered, barely coming through over the radio.

"It was what?", Vexen said, turning to the radio and--again--feeling somewhat silly about it. "Is it any surprise that an object with such a definite shape was not naturally-occuring?"

"Well," she said, "Yeah... that's the problem... I had always thought there was more to it than that."

"You shouldn't confuse something's origins with its importance," Lexaeus said, trying to read some of the scroll for himself to pick up on the language more. "If you look at it that way, we Nobodies are just the byproducts of a Heartless' meal. And you, Zexion, and any others like you..."

"We'd be nothing," I finished.

"But we're not."


	38. The Fifth Scroll

**The Fifth Scroll**

The fifth scroll looked very different than the first four. Rather than some form of paper, it was made of cloth, and the writing was done in various metallic paints rather than a more-normal color of ink.

It unrolled much easier than the previous ones, and seemed newer. Brand-new, even. It looked as if there wasn't a speck of dirt anywhere on it--even though it had to have been in that room for at least a hundred years, maybe longer.

Vexen looked over the scroll, reading through it. The language was one he was more familiar with, unlike the others, though it seemed to be written in a more archaic style.

"Very odd," Vexen muttered, "It appears new, but the writing dates back from a time at least two hundred years ago."

He continued to read over the scroll, not giving anyone else a chance to see it. Well, except for Zexion and the girl--it would've been rather hard to hide the scroll's contents from them, since they could be literally anywhere in the room. They could even be between Vexen and the scroll, and he'd never notice.

Several minutes passed, and then Vexen looked up, seeming that he was about to make an announcement.

"The scroll appears to be a forgery," the old man said, "Nothing matches with the previous scrolls, either writing style or content. In my opinion, this scroll is worth no more than any other piece of garbage."

"But what _is_ in the scroll?", the girl asked. Apparently, she hadn't been reading it after all.

"Vexen said it was a forgery," I said, "It's perhaps best not to bother with it, in that case."

"It may not be a forgery at all," Zexion butted in, "Perhaps it was just placed with the other scrolls by accident. This was the only intact copy of this particular scroll in the scroll rack, remember."

Zexion had a good point. Though the scroll may have been different than the others, this wasn't necessarily because it was a fake--it was possible that it _was_ just a case of one scroll that didn't match being placed with the others.

"Yes," I said, "Let's see the scroll's contents anyway. It's a piece of history, regardless of whether it belongs with the rest."

* * *

The scroll's contents told of a time when humans in the World of Light all lived on one world, and apparently worshipped the Light itself. The capital city, located on a tropical island, was the location of an ancient temple where people would go for various religious purposes.

There they would dance around a crystal statue of an ancient being of Light, apparently a god of some sort, at least in the minds of these people. The sun would come through a small hole in the celing, refracting through the crystal statue and illuminating the entire room in various colors of light.

But one day, servants of the Darkness came to their paradise, and waged war on the people of the island city. Beings of Darkness came, disguising their form as those of Light to trick the helpless citizens into believing that their own protector was instead trying to destroy them.

* * *

I immediately stopped at this point, reading ahead quickly. It appeared that Vexen's initial opinions on the scroll were quite accurate--it was nothing more than a retelling of the story of Gil-Neithev's destruction of the World of Light, blaming this damage on Darkness instead.

In other words, garbage.

We had discovered the source of all misconceptions, the single piece of writing that had convinced the World of Light to believe that Darkness was a destructive, malevolent force and Light was the source of all things good.

"Gil-Neithev," Zexion growled slightly, "Somebody associated with Gil-Neithev wrote this. It has to be."

"It seems so," I spoke toward the radio, "Even after the destruction of that particular evil, its influence continued in those who were foolish enough to allow it."

"It's planning something," Zexion said. I almost thought that, for a second, I could sense a hint of fear in his voice--not the same kind of fear he had for Larxene, or even Xemnas, but a different type.

The kind you couldn't just run away from.

"This scroll would never have been written if not to prepare the citizens of the World of Light for a second massacre," Zexion continued, "Gil-Neithev couldn't just come back and attack again after the first time. They'd be expecting an attacker from the Light--it would've been the only true enemy they remembered."

"But if someone was able to convince everyone that it happened differently..."

"Yes, Lexaeus. Gil-Neithev and its followers have rewritten history to remove all traces of the initial battle--but one piece remained that could not simply be wiped away. The destruction of the World of Light..."

"And thus, this scroll of deception was born."


	39. The Sixth Scroll

**The Sixth Scroll**

After the rather disappointing contents of the fifth scroll, Vexen was eager to roll up that piece of trash and move on to the sixth, and final, of the so-called "Scrolls of Darkness."

Obviously, thanks to the fifth scroll, that name didn't quite work for the scrolls as a group anymore, but fortunately the fifth scroll's addition to that particular scroll rack was probably a mistake... so the old name would stay.

The sixth scroll, like the fifth, was much more recent than the others. However, the paper was the same familiar type that composed the older scrolls, and the ink was black again, much more familiar than the odd metal-colored paint of the previous scroll.

"Well, what's in this one?", I asked, my voice coming in clearly through the radio. "It's the last scroll, so there's no need to rush, but I'd like to know if we're dealing with something useful, or another piece of trash like that fifth scroll."

"You're exactly right," Vexen said, turning toward the radio and scowling slightly, "There _is_ no need to rush. So **_don't rush._**"

That shut me up quickly. Vexen wasn't powerful by any definition (except in a strictly mental sense), but he had a way of suddenly seeming much more so when he was annoyed. Especially when the annoyance was interfering with any sort of research--he was especially intimidating to anyone who would dare get in the way of his latest projects.

I would know--I was often assigned jobs assisting Vexen with his research back in the earlier days of the Organization. And, being the youngest member at that time, I managed to annoy Vexen quite a bit just by not getting everything exactly right. I was intelligent, sure--possibly within the range of the most intelligent members of the Organization. But back then, I was still young and hadn't quite figured some things out yet.

Most importantly, don't _ever_ do anything to prevent Vexen from having access to avacados.

Several minutes passed, and Vexen was finally done reading over the scroll for himself. Like most of the scrolls, it was written in the language of the World of Darkness. As far as he could tell, this scroll was another useful addition to the collection--not another warped account of history like the fifth one.

"It seems," Vexen said, looking up from the scroll, "That we've finally found some information regarding Castle Oblivion's past."

* * *

The scroll told of an enormous white tower, reaching up high into the sky, twenty-five floors high in all. This place had long been the home of the Twilight World's royal family and their supporters, and thanks to a variety of magical and robotic enhancements, it was permanently lit on the inside. Someone within a room would only have to snap their fingers once to disable these lights; a second snap would turn them back on.

Every day, the great tower was filled with crowds of green-haired people of every size and shape, going about their daily trips to distant villages on the small, magically-enhanced vehicles provided by some of the great wizards of the Twilight World. Each person knew how to operate these vehicles, even (in a limited sense) most of the children, and after a certain age they would each have a personalized one built for them, along with various other tools.

Outside of the often-chaotic politics of the royal court, life within the tower was essentially perfect. The white walls were a nearly perfect protection from the weather outside, even in the most extreme cases--such as the powerful tornadoes that would sometimes rip through the plains of the Twilight World. Even a tornado couldn't shake the tower's foundations--it would merely be split into a number of weaker tornadoes as it passed through, as if cut into pieces by a sword.

Everyone was provided somewhere to sleep, no matter how rich or poor and regardless of anything to do with social status. In fact, outside of the royalty, the concept of social status hardly even existed in this place. Even in the schools, where disagreements between groups of children were almost universal, everyone usually got along fairly well.

This paradise existed for hundreds, if not thousands, of years with little threat to its existence. Warriors were trained in case a threat would ever emerge, but they rarely had anyone to fight besides each other (and of course, that was only sparring, not serious combat). Weapons of all types existed here, but they very rarely found any use beyond combat training exercises and the occasional criminal who was quickly subdued and dealt with.

That all changed with the intrusion of Gil-Neithev. At first it was slow and nearly-invisible, beginning with a few higher-ranked members of the royal family growing obsessed with the power that Light had to offer, and ignoring the Darkness-filled side of their own existence in favor of that. Due to the power they held and the secrecy that surrounded their private lives, this went nearly unnoticed.

Next, a strange religion began to catch on among a few members of the public, a religion centered around the worship of Light. Small crystal statues of a strange being began to show up occasionally in antique shops, and those of that religion snapped them up within seconds if possible, regardless of the price.

Some teachers began to teach slightly differently, ignoring any mention of the fact that Gil-Neithev, the powerful Light being of the ancient legends, was just as evil and dangerous as the equivelant being of Darkness, Creiv-Rilett. Mentions of the Twilight being, Sen-Knaida, that balanced those two became rare as well, making the new generation more likely to believe that everything was either Light or Dark--there was no gray area in between.

The actual known history of those beings--that Creiv-Rilett and Sen-Knaida were long dead, yet Gil-Neithev lived on--was often ignored as well, giving kids the idea that all three were both alive and currently active.

Gil-Neithev was encouraging the humans to do what humans on other worlds had done, and split into opposing groups. It was brewing up a war that would permanently cripple the people of the Twilight World.

And then war broke out. Creatures of Light, no doubt controlled by Gil-Neithev, began to appear in the plains beyond the castle--and they were approaching. The leaders of the Twilight royal family sought to gather an army to fight back this threat, but those who had been tricked by Gil-Neithev opposed this movement, instead claiming that the beings of Light were there to purify rather than to destroy.

This political feuding went on for years, as the Light creatures grew ever higher in numbers. It wasn't long before the king, sick of the infighting within his people, exiled those who had become obsessed with the Light.

He had expected them to meet their doom at the hands of the Light creatures, but the result was entirely different--they instead began controlling them. War was now completely unavoidable. The king gathered his closest followers and began to build an army, while messengers were sent to find the great wizards and seek their help as well.

The armies clashed, those of Twilight having the advantage of combat skill but those of Light vastly outnumbering them. The fighting went on for several years before a group of combined wizards and metalworkers, known as Chasers, were found by the messengers and came to visit the tower.

The Chasers went to work, designing massive robotic war machines that easily would be capable of doing more damage than ten of the strongest human warriors. They also constructed a set of powerful magic weapons known as Keyblades, which were to be handed out to every warrior in the army who was familiar with any type of sword or club. Three more-powerful Keyblades, one each representing Light, Darkness, and Twilight, were to be given to the three greatest warriors in the army.

These new weapons evened out the clash between armies, but before long the enemy had captured Keyblades and learned to corrupt this technology to their own ends, creating "artificial" Keyblades from the purified hearts of their slain enemies. The three generals of the enemy's army wielded the three strongest of these Keyblades, and suddenly the Twilight army was at a massive disadvantage once again.

If not for the last-minute intervention of Xehanort, from the World of Darkness, the armies of Gil-Neithev's followers would have surely won the war, and the World of Twilight would have become shattered much like the World of Light before it.

After the war's end, the people of Twilight were battle-scarred and crippled. Never again would they know peace--the war had destroyed any chance of that.

Political infighting grew even worse than before, with even more strange religions emerging from the crowds that once only held simple, ancestor-worshipping traditions. Some claimed that Creiv-Rilett should be worshipped, as if somehow that long-dead being of Darkness had influenced Xehanort to save their world. Others became reverent of Twilight itself, with Sen-Knaida being their primary target of worship. Small sects still followed the ways of Light, worshipping Gil-Neithev even though the being had apparently been destroyed.

Still others preferred to skip over the three ancient beings and worship Xehanort himself, seeing him as some sort of demigod who had descended from the heavens to save their lives.

Regardless of _which_ religion people chose, their choice caused trouble. Even those who had no preference weren't spared, as they were often tormented by the more-religious citizens for their lack of definite beliefs.

But regardless of all this, the years still went by, and the tower remained in one piece even as its people did not. It was, in the end, not the forces of corrupted Light who were the downfall of the people of Twilight--it was an earthquake, greater in magnitude than any that had been seen before.

This earthquake resulted in the tower itself falling into a deep pit, with the lower twelve floors becoming trapped beneath the ground. What was once the thirteenth floor was now the first, with the doorway that once led out to a large balcony now being the only point of entrance for the tower itself.

A small group remained in that tower after the initial shock of the earthquake, but the rest spread out into the rest of the world, not wanting to risk yet another event like the first cave-in that nearly halved the above-ground height of the tower.

That small group would soon run into some problems of their own--a terrible disease, released from its imprisonment below the ground's surface by the earthquake and stirred up into the air by the migration of people away from the tower, caught hold of almost the entire population, killing all but a lucky few. It was that point when the tower become utterly abandoned, and passed away into legends as a place that was cursed.

Perhaps it would stay abandoned forever... and perhaps not.

* * *

"Hmph, silly superstitions," Vexen said, "Cursed? Earthquakes and diseases are all perfectly natural things to plague a place like this, and it seems we haven't seen much of either since that time hundreds of years ago."

"It would still be wise not to stir up the ground outside," Lexaeus said, "My body may be powerful, but only a fool would ignore the threat of a disease like that."

"Green hair," the girl said, "And Keyblades... could they..."

"Yes, perhaps," Vexen said, "It's possible that the former residents of this castle were your ancestors."

"So that's why," she said, "That's why I've always felt drawn to this place... now, and in the past, when I first fought your Organization..."

The scrolls had answered many of our questions, indeed.


	40. Dusks

**Author's Note:** Kind of a silly chapter--Zexion's opinions on the most common, and probably the freakiest, of the basic Nobodies.

* * *

**Dusks**

Vexen was busy making sure my clone was progressing normally. Lexaeus was off somewhere reading one of the books we had taken from the Disney Castle catacombs, probably lifting weights with his free hand at the same time. And the girl was nowhere to be seen--I had no idea where she could have gone, so I didn't bother looking.

So, out of boredom, I decided to pay a visit to the World That Never Was. I'm really not sure where that name came from in the first place--it sounds somewhat like one of Xemnas' "nothing-themed" names that were assigned to each of the rooms of our base, but the name was already in use before we even got there.

The place had changed a bit since my last visit--it was still filled with Heartless, as it had always been since it was overrun by those creatures in the Organization's early years, but the buildings--especially the Memory Skyscraper--had been redecorated somewhat. Neon Heartless symbols were all over the place, and many of the old signs had been taken down and replaced.

But enough about that. The thing I noticed most of all was the Dusks.

Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of them. They had apparently been forced out of the city by someone, causing them to wander aimlessly on the outskirts of the city, and occasionally further out into the World of Darkness. But mostly, they just stood in place. Without the Organization's presence in the world, they never really had anything to _do_ anymore.

So they stood... and they _wiggled._

Always wiggling, back and forth, constantly. Whether they were standing, walking, or even flying through the air, everyone around was plagued by the sight of their endless wiggling.

It was almost disturbing to watch, and if you watched for long enough, you would often find yourself moving your eyes, or even your entire head, back in forth in time with their wiggling. It was almost hypnotic, in a way--it was so strange, it was hard to look away, no matter how much you wanted to.

Even for one who knew the reasons behind it, like myself, it was hard not to be bothered by this incessant wiggling. That is the primary--if not _only_--reason why we always preferred to keep Dusks far away and summon them when needed, rather than keeping them closeby like an army.

Nobody, not even Saix or Xemnas, could stand the sight of an _army_ of Dusks wiggling back and forth. Even the minds of Lexaeus, Vexen, and I would begin to crack after a half-hour of that mesmerizing wiggling. Roxas was downright afraid of the things, and Marluxia never walked too close by one, even if it was one he was controlling at the time.

A popular rumor going around was that Marluxia fed Dusks to his "pet" on the top floor, and I can believe it. He couldn't stand being around something that always had to be moving--he preferred plants. And mailmen.

Larxene was probably the only one of us who actually went near them willingly. Apparently, she liked to play with them--usually in ways that involved stabbing, electrocution, or throwing strange-looking grayish-white things at the walls to see if they would bounce.

They did.

It took a week to clean up all the shards of broken flower-decorations, pillars, and windows.


	41. The Base

**The Base**

Sure, the place's official name was "The Castle That Never Was." But nobody ever bothered to say the whole thing. We always called it "the base" or occasionally "the castle" if Xemnas or Saix were around at the time--the two of them never did like it when the rest of the Organization ignored the "nothing-themed" names that Xemnas had picked out.

Of course, by the time he got around to naming the castle itself rather than just the individual rooms within it, it seems Xemnas had run out of ideas. Instead of some overcomplicated reference to nonexistence, he just used the same name that the city itself already had, but replaced "world" with "castle." Xemnas never really was the most creative member of the group, unless he was coming up with odd missions to send the rest of us out on so he could sit and stare at Kingdom Hearts without any interruptions.

But the place has really changed since the last time I was here. It was damaged in the final battles between Sora, Riku, and Xemnas, but that damage seems to have been repaired.

And, it appears that someone else has moved into our old base. I can't imagine who would want to live in a Heartless-overrun city like this, but it seems they don't mind having Heartless around all the time, judging by the giant neon-red Heartless symbols they've set up all around the place.

Of course, with Kingdom Hearts destroyed, it seems that the Heartless themselves have spread out a bit. There are still thousands, if not millions, of the creatures in the city, but without that one giant heart in the sky to attract them, their numbers have decreased significantly. They've moved on to other places, searching for food--which, in their case, is usually hearts.

The castle has also been redecorated, much like the city below it. There's now a giant Heartless symbol painted across the outer wall on one side, and the entire castle has been painted black with various shades of purple in certain places.

Oddly, whoever has taken the castle for themselves doesn't seem to be home right now. In fact, I haven't seen anyone in the castle except Heartless... and those don't exactly count as "someone," due to their complete lack of any real intelligence.

The inside of the castle, too, is much less brightly-colored than it was before. Each of our personal rooms, probably the only comfortable rooms in the entire place, have been redesigned in a variety of different ways. Xemnas' room, which he rarely visited, is now the home of many spellbooks and potions of various types, as well as a large bed and cobwebs everywhere. Whereas Xemnas' room had cobwebs due to not being cleaned, whoever lives in the room now seems to use them as a decoration of sorts. There's also a large birdcage in the corner, though it was empty at the time I visited.

Xigbar's room, too, has been redesigned. Apparently, whoever lives there now liked his gun collection enough to keep it, though the glass cabinet that holds it has been moved outside of the room rather than being located next to the bed. The rest of the room is extremely messy, even more so than Xigbar's was. There are junk-food wrappers everywhere, and takeout bags from every restaurant known to man (and probably a few that aren't, as well). A variety of unwashed clothes, mostly in very large sizes that would be baggy even to Lexaeus, are strewn throughout the room's floor. There's probably more cockroaches in that one room now than there were in the entire castle before.

Most of the other rooms seem to have been abandoned, though not before the castle's new occupants cleaned out most of the Organization's old stuff. Thankfully, I kept most of my personal belongings in Castle Oblivion rather than the main base.

Vexen's going to be pissed when he finds out that someone just tossed out all of his old scientific equipment and the various books he wrote in the Organization's earlier years.

The Proof of Existence room is now completely different, replaced by what appears to be a meeting room of some type. Appropriate, seeing as we often used that room for meetings when we were required to stay at the main base, though I wish they hadn't destroyed and thrown out all of the pedestals that tracked the status of each Organization member.

Yet another thing that would send Vexen into a rage. I hope whoever lives here likes the cold, because when Vexen finds out about all this...


	42. Heartless Intelligence

**Heartless Intelligence**

Earlier, I made the observation that Twilight Town seems to be the place where Twilight energy is the most concentrated. More recently, it seems I've discovered that there may, indeed, be equivalent places in the Worlds of Light and Darkness.

I was spying on the Castle That Never Was, trying to learn more of those who had taken it from the Organization, when the thought first came to me. The sky was always pitch-black, especially without the light of Kingdom Hearts to brighten parts of it. Heartless entered the place in swarms, even when nobody with a heart for them to eat was present. Even complete beings who leaned toward Darkness--such as the castle's current occupants, Pete and Maleficent--seemed to be drawn to the place.

I'm almost surprised I didn't guess it before--the one location within the World of Darkness where the Darkness itself is the strongest. I should have seen it before, the fact that millions of Heartless still lived in that area even without Kingdom Hearts in the sky to attract them there.

The World That Never Was.

That dark city was the place at the peak of Darkness' power all along, and somehow I never noticed. Perhaps it was the presence of Kingdom Hearts, a structure which had always leaned more toward Light than Darkness, that kept me from noticing--especially since, at the time, I had no idea where Kingdom Hearts had originally come from.

That was the true reason why Heartless were drawn to the place--they were strengthened by the Darkness, and that strength provided them with both additional power and, oddly, a very small degree of intelligence.

Heartless, when in or near a massive source of Darkness, actually gain intelligence. I never would have believed it before, but now it suddenly seems to make sense.

_That_ was why it became more and more difficult to control them using the Darkness the further into the city you went. That was the reason that Pete and Maleficent, when first arriving there, were surprised to discover that the Heartless no longer obeyed their calls, no matter how much Darkness they pumped into the commands.

The Heartless were actually _disobeying_ their orders. A mindless being cannot disobey a command from one who knows how to control it, but for one with even the slightest amount of intelligence... it becomes easier to disobey orders than to follow them.

For the first time, the Heartless _learned._ They found that Pete and Maleficent would not even attempt to destroy them unless they attacked first. Nothing else can explain how those two, both of which still have their hearts intact, survived so long in a place so filled with Heartless. A swarm of the typical unintelligent Heartless would have overpowered them easily, but with the intelligence granted to them by the massive amount of Darkness, they found that keeping them--the witch and the fat dog... cat... _thing_--alive would help _them_ as well.

Essentially, Pete and Maleficent are being used as bodyguards for the newly-intelligent Heartless. The Heartless may follow their commands more in the future, in exchange for this protection, but it's hard to tell. Heartless, when given intelligence, seem to be quite unpredictable--very much unlike the usual Heartless.

The very thought of it is almost frightening at first--Heartless with intelligence. But, now that I think about it, they actually seem to be far _less_ dangerous in their new state than they were before.

Rather than simply seeking out hearts, both for food and to produce more of their kind, the Heartless are beginning to show curiosity for other things. Looking out windows. Seeing the sky, and the stars beyond it. Poking at the construction of the castle, apparently learning to recognize shapes and colors as any intelligent being would in its early years.

They're certainly not _very_ intelligent--perhaps thinking on the same level as a 5-year old child, at most--but any amount of intelligence is a step up from the usual Heartless. They seem to behave rather similar to kittens now, actually--jumping on and chasing each other for fun, and occasionally cuddling up to some of the larger Heartless.

If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say they were _cute._


	43. Doors

**Author's Note:** Holy crap! 10000 hits? Wow... never expected so many people to read this. Of course, 140 reviews is even more surprising... but yeah.

* * *

**Doors**

Throughout the three known Worlds, many doors exist. There are, of course, countless numbers of normal wooden, metal, or stone doors--the same kind you see every day--that aren't really worth mentioning.

But then, there are others. Doors between Worlds, for example. Though the most well-known of the doors is that which exists between the World of Light and the World of Darkness, there are actually two more doors of the same type.

I'm unsure exactly where these giant doors came from--there was no information about them in any of the scrolls, though at least one of them was mentioned. Apparently, they existed long before any of the scrolls were written--any record of history relating to these doors is probably so old that it has become forgotten by all by now.

The two other doors are similar to the so-called "Door to Darkness," but there are some small differences in the various carvings and other designs on them if you look closely enough. The door leading from the Twilight World to the World of Darkness is darker in color, and is located on a small asteroid that appears to be fixed in place, much like the stone platform that holds the Light World's door to the World of Darkness.

The third door, which connects the World of Light to the Twilight World, is almost translucent in appearance, as if carved entirely out of some kind of crystal. Much like the other two, this door is almost impossible to damage, and is suprisingly light in weight considering its size. Though each door is easily twenty feet tall, it would only take a moderate amount of effort for most of us in the Organization to push them closed--and they would slam shut immediately from anything more than a light shove from someone with incredible strength like Lexaeus.

This third door, like the one between Light and Darkness, is located on a platform floating in space. This one, however, is composed entirely of some sort of blue crystal, which usually has a dim glow around it--probably reflected from the door itself, which (like the other doors) seems to always be illuminated no matter what level of light the area around it is in.

* * *

There are also other doors--in the World of Light, each world has a heart-like core within it that helps hold the world together, and each of these cores are sealed away behind a special door. These doors are a much more recent addition than those that link the Worlds together--it was mentioned in the scrolls that Xehanort and the other Warriors of Darkness actually created them to seal away Gil-Neithev within one of the cores' chambers.

Most likely, the other doors were created in a similar way, but to keep other potential dangers out rather than to seal Gil-Neithev in. However, it seems that the original seals that the Warriors of Darkness put on the doors have weakened and faded over time. When the Heartless first began their invasion of the World of Light, they found many of the doors already unlocked when they arrived--and these worlds were quickly destroyed.

The homeworlds of Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene were among the worlds that were destroyed first. Other worlds still had a portion of Xehanort's seal remaining--the Heartless had located the doors to the hearts of these worlds, but were unable to enter until the seal was completely gone. Radiant Garden was one of these worlds--Xehanort discovered the door during his time as one of Ansem's researchers, but of all the researchers, only he was capable of opening it and going in.

I now know why--the seals were originally created by the Warriors of Darkness, so it's only logical that they would be unaffected by the seal and be able to enter sealed doors even without unlocking them first.

However, the Heartless couldn't simply get around this lock. Even when Xehanort became a Heartless, he could still open the door--but he was the only Heartless able to do so. It seems that Radiant Garden's seal was one of the strongest--even after the Heartless had demolished the world itself, the door to its core remained inaccessible to them.

Other worlds had doors that were very close to becoming unsealed--Agrabah, Atlantica, Neverland, and many others. Re-sealing these doors with his Keyblade's power is perhaps the most beneficial thing that Sora has ever done--the seal of the Keyblade seems to be roughly on the same level as the original seal, and by the time the doors become unlocked once again, it's likely that very few Heartless will exist.

* * *

A third type of special door that exists is that which leads into a pocket of the World of Nothingness, the fourth World in the portion of existence that we have access to. One of these doors is on the top floor of Castle Oblivion, and leads into a zone of random, swirling energy where Marluxia kept his pet and bodyguard, the Nobody called Spectre.

Several others exist, most of which are located in the World That Never Was and are usually only used by Xemnas. At least one of these is where he keeps several large, powerful Nobodies similar to Marluxia's Spectre. Another serves as a storage room for the various spaceships built by Vexen, which are often too large to be put anywhere inside of either of our two bases.

Yet another is the area which is often reffered to as the "Dusk nest," a place of swirling colors where many thousands of Dusks stay when they aren't being ordered to do anything by one of the Organization members. Oddly, this is the one place where the Dusks do not constantly wiggle--apparently, strange places such as this appear perfectly normal to them, and they don't feel the need to move around all the time.

Though within the World of Nothingness, the zones beyond these doors are also sealed away from the rest of the World--which is nothing more than a blank, gray void. Those who find themselves within the World of Nothingness cannot exit through the doors because of this--within the void, these pockets only appear as slightly rippled areas, otherwise no different than their surroundings. The doors aren't visible at all, unless someone on the other side opens them.

From the World of Nothingness, there is only one exit that can always be accessed--the Dark Passage. This, I presume, is how Ansem--who, by that point, had begun calling himself "DiZ"--managed to escape after an increasingly-insane Xehanort exiled him to that gray void.

As useful as the Dark Passage is, sometimes I can't help but think we might have been better off if it wasn't there.


	44. Chasers

**Author's Note:** Any guesses as to who the two wizards are? I mean, I can't possibly be the only one here who's ever played the original Final Fantasy 3 (the NES one), right?

* * *

**Chasers**

Recently, I've been exploring around the Twilight World again, hoping to find something that I wouldn't have noticed before--and, of course, to keep from being too bored. There's not a whole lot to do in Castle Oblivion when Vexen is busy with his research, Lexaeus is reading, and the girl is off who-knows-where, after all.

And, surprisingly, it seems I _have_ discovered something. Several of the scrolls we found mentioned a group of wizards who, hundreds of years ago, created the first Keyblades.

I had originally thought that they would have died by now, but apparently something has extended their lifespan to unnatural lengths--most likely some of their own magic, as they must have been very powerful to be able to create even one Keyblade, let alone the hundreds of them that were mentioned in the scrolls.

Nestled far away in the mountains north of Castle Oblivion, far beyond any human settlement, there is a large cave. From its outside appearances, there's nothing special about it whatsoever, but what lies within the cave...

The first thing I noticed was the abundance of Moogles in the area. Usually, Moogles are rare in the Twilight World--occasionally one or two will appear near Twilight Town or one of the various other villages, but for the most part, they are rarely seen. I now see why--there are literally thousands of the furry little creatures living in this cave. And even further in, the cave's plain stone walls give way to something that appears to be an underground mansion.

The home of the two wizards who just may be the last remaining Chasers, those who forged the Keyblades.

One of the two, a man, is never seen without his long, red robes and a hood that covers all facial features except for a long, white beard and a moustache. He appears to be roughly average in height, and usually carries a staff. I was unable to catch his name, but even in my current state I was able to determine that he is a being of incredible power.

The other, a woman, gives an entirely different impression. If not for the aura of power surrounding her and her slightly-disfigured features, she could very easily be mistaken for a harmless old lady, no different than any other human her age. She, too, carries a magical staff--but it can easily be mistaken for a perfectly normal cane.

And judging back the room with a series of magic circles permanently engraved in the floor, these two were only part of a much larger group. There were eight circles going around the edges of the room, with one larger one in the middle--apparently for whoever was the leader of this group of wizards in the past. It's likely that this room was the one where the Keyblades were forged--there are still stores of various rare metals and other materials stacked up in several corners, many of which resemble the materials that the currently-known Keyblades seem to be composed of.

There are also many old scrolls lying around--some rolled up, others unrolled and hanging up on the walls. Surely these scrolls contain many secrets--though I doubt it would be possible for us to just walk in and take them, not with the two wizards here. It's impossible to tell what kind of opinion the two of them have toward Nobodies like us--neither of the two have been seen for hundreds of years, but I'm sure they've been paying attention to the events of the world beyond the safety of their cave.

But who are the other seven wizards? Could they still be lurking somewhere among the three Worlds, or have they all died since then? Are the two in this cave the only living remnants of their kind?

Or are there others, somewhere, waiting to be discovered... or perhaps making sure they _aren't_ discovered?

It seems that no matter how much I learn, there are always more questions.


	45. The Basement

**Author's Note:** Finally! (it's been what, months?)

* * *

**The Basement**

My clone has been progressing at a normal rate so far, according to Vexen's notes on the process. It won't be long before I'll need to stay closer to the lab, to make sure that my soul is able to enter the fetus at the right time, and bond with my new body correctly. If _anything_ goes wrong, I may be trapped this way permanently--or worse, if my soul is drawn to the body but does not completely enter it. It's hard to tell what would happen in that case, and I'd rather not think about it.

In the short amount of time I have left--barely a month, now--I have decided to continue my exploration of various places throughout the worlds... beginning with Castle Oblivion.

Mainly, the boarded-up area beneath the twelfth basement floor.

I had noticed it before, when I still had a body, but obviously that made it very hard to actually see the place. After all, the boards were completely covering the entrance, and I wasn't sure if there were stairs leading downward underneath them or not. But now, neither of those things were any problem.

Probably the first thing I noticed about the "under-basement" room was how dark it was. While the rest of Castle Oblivion is permanently lit by some device within the walls, this room was obviously not--either that, or the lights of this room had been damaged or destroyed at some point.

There seemed to be several points in the room that were a bit lighter than others, which I later found to be some sort of crystal statues. The majority of them resembled some sort of snake-like creature, with two clawed arms and multiple eyes, designed in a way that looked like it was either surrounded by flames or composed of some type of energy--it was hard to tell, due to the odd style that the statues were carved in.

I couldn't tell exactly why they were glowing, but the lights seemed to be very dim most of the time. Occasionally, the lights of the statues would flare up brightly for a second or two, before returning to their previous dull glow. The strangest thing was that they seemed to be synchronized somehow--whenever one statue began to brighten, the rest did as well.

Perhaps these are some examples of the crystal statues mentioned in the scrolls? If so, then we at least have an idea of what Gil-Neithev might have looked like--and what to watch out for if the Light creatures ever begin to attack, or move to other worlds.

After a closer inspection, I noticed that this "room" was actually more like a cave--meaning that it was most likely far below the ground originally, rather than being connected to the basements of Castle Oblivion. If the cave had always been directly below the basements, it likely would have collapsed in the event of an earthquake strong enough to make the castle itself fall below the ground--it would have been impossible for the statues to survive a shock like that, as well.

Away from the statues, I discovered what appeared to be a tunnel leading further back into the cave. Along the walls, there were various glowing crystals, much like the material that made up the statues--and, like the statues, occasionally becoming much brighter than usual. The deeper into the caves I went, the more crystals I saw--until, eventually, the entire cave wall was covered with them--or possibly made up entirely of them.

After nearly an hour of exploring the caves, I discovered what appeared to be some sort of tomb. Three coffins, looking much like the usual plain wood coffin, were standing up against the wall, and it seemed that some of the crystal that made up the walls had grown up around them, holding them in place. Oddly, I couldn't smell anything resembling decay near the coffins--even the wood they were crafted from had not even begun to rot yet.

As I got closer, something very strange happened--I _felt_ something from within the coffins, some strange aura that I have never felt before. I quickly moved away from the coffins after that--getting closer would be useless anyway, as I would never be able to open one to see what was hidden within them in my current state.

Wait--why would the crystals making up the walls _grow_ around these three coffins? Normal minerals take thousands, if not millions, of years to grow even an inch--and this cave doesn't seem to be nearly that old. Even if it was, the coffins couldn't possibly be--the wood would have certainly rotted away into nothing by now, even in this relatively dry cave.

_Something_ important must be sealed away inside of those coffins... but what? Or possibly... _who?_


	46. A Long Nap

**Author's Note:** 46 is 64 backwards, so I dedicate the last chapter to the Nintendo 64. I think I speak for everyone when I say, "Thank you for Super Smash Bros., Nintendo 64."

* * *

**A Long Nap**

The time when my soul must enter the developing fetus within Vexen's cloning pod is fast approaching.

I have felt the first waves of it already--as it turns out, there was no real danger of me "missing" the right time, as it has become nearly impossible for me to stay very far away from the cloning pod. Being a Nobody produced a feeling of incompleteness, but even that was nothing compared to what I feel every time I even so much as _think_ of drifting away from the cloning pod's location.

I imagine that this new feeling is somewhat like what it would feel like if I truly did not exist--that is, if it were possible for something that didn't exist to feel _anything_.

As for the clone, it seems to be developing at a normal rate. It now resembles a fetus around the sixth month of pregnancy--now, for the first time, clearly distinguishable as something that will once live, rather than just a vaguely-shaped, malformed blob of flesh.

It's strange seeing myself--or what might as well be myself, anyway--at such an early stage of development. At the time I was born, there was no means of viewing a fetus before birth on my world--I imagine that my parents would be even more interested in seeing this than I am.

If they're still alive at all, that is. My world was one of the first to be destroyed by the Heartless--it was located close to Radiant Garden's world, and easily reached through the Dark Passage. My parents returned home after I joined Ansem's research team, so it was likely that they were there when the Heartless arrived.

It's been nearly 15 years now, but I still miss them.

All these thoughts of parents has turned my attention toward the girl. What happened to _her_ parents? She couldn't have been far beyond her teenage years when her battle with Xigbar took place--were her parents even alive then, or did she live on her own? How did she come to own a Keyblade, and what drove her to attack our fledgling Organization?

These are questions that will have to be answered another day. Perhaps by the time my clone finishes development, Vexen would have already begun a plan for providing a body for her--it would certainly make it easier for the three of us to communicate with her that way, and having a Keyblade wielder of considerable power on your side is never a disadvantage.

I'm beginning to slip out of consciousness now.

Certainly a side-effect of my soul beginning to infuse into the clone... Any human fetus, even mine, and even at this late stage, is incapable of any form of conscious thought...

Vexen is fiddling with something on the pod... probably to help the extra energy... infuse as well.

It's becoming harder and harder to stay conscious...

I likely won't remember these last thoughts when I reawaken... no one ever remembers their last thoughts before they fall asleep.

Well...

I suppose I should look at this as the beginning of a very long nap.


	47. What Comes Next

**Author's Note:** This is just a little "preview" of what's coming in the next story (which will be seperate from Thoughts of Zexion, though it is a continuation of it). Kinda like those weird little "random scenes with floating text" things that the KH games have as previews of the next game, like Deep Dive was (and probably the KH2:Final Mix secret ending will be, as well).

So don't expect to really "get" anything out of this... it's all bits and pieces. Look at it as one of those weird trailer things, because, well, that's kinda what it is.

* * *

_"Organized crime, here?"_

_"The brightest light casts the darkest shadow... but no shadow can withstand our light."_

Sora, now in his mid-twenties, walks down a hallway alongside Kairi. The two of them are dressed very differently, with white clothes covered in various strange symbols in gold and silver. Kairi's hair now hangs halfway down her back, and she's wearing a dress rather than her usual clothing.

_"Ah... Michiko, Child of the Pathway. So one of you did survive after all."_

_"My Darkness is my own, just like my Light."_

A tall young man wearing a tattered brown coat and a wide-brimmed black hat stands on a cliff, overlooking Radiant Garden. One of his hands is inside the coat, apparently holding onto something.

_"Xehanort! But... that's impossible!"_

_"We have seen all of this before."_

_"I remember when I lost my mind..."_

A small Shadow Heartless pounces on a strange, glowing-white creature, but is thrown off easily. Hundreds more of the glowing creatures come over a hill, tearing the Heartless apart.

_"None but the purest of heart can look into the Queen's eyes..."_

Several people stand in front of an enormous crystal statue, kneeling down and chanting something over and over. The statue glows brightly for a second, then dims again.

_"Don't you remember him?"_

_"Your heart is soaked in Darkness..."_

_"If all hearts are purified..."_

Vexen hurriedly writes something down in a notebook, then turns toward a green-haired girl who is standing a few feet away.

Xehanort, wearing what appears to be a black tuxedo, walks up a grassy hill and swings open the door to an old, abandoned mansion, which looks like a haunted house. The tall buildings of the World that Never Was can be seen on the horizon, not too far away.

_"History repeats itself."_

A sandstorm blows across a vast desert as hundreds of armored soldiers march through, each carrying a Keyblade. A tower can be seen in the distance.

_"Gil-Neithev..."_

_"A paradise of Light, untainted by even the slightest bit of Darkness..."_

_"Our sleep in death has ended."_

A green-haired girl swings at an armored knight with her Keyblade, but misses as the knight disappears in a blur. Within a second, he has pinned the girl to the ground.

_"You are not him... only a pawn of the Darkness!"_

Kairi's eyes flicker for a second, seeming to show a terrible anger even as she smiles and giggles happily.

_"I cannot simply abandon the cause of Light to help you, my old friends."_

_"The temple... they've..."_

An enormous snake-like being, with a body made up of some sort of bright, flickering energy, rises up in a spiraling pattern. It appears to be emerging from someone's body, but the light is too bright to see who.

The ground shakes, and a red-and-black axe-like weapon comes flying into view, slamming into Sora and knocking him backward, flat on the ground.

_"What was once nine is now reduced to one."_

_"How can you fools hope to face the wrath of Light itself?"_

_"So long as even the tiniest shred of Darkness remains, we won't give in to you."_

There is an explosion, and Heartless are scattered everywhere, most of them injured or dead due to the blast. As the black smoke from dying Heartless clears, Pete can be seen running away from the direction the explosion came from.

_"My Light and my Darkness, the two of them..."_

_"I'll protect this place with my life, as they did for me!"_

An older Roxas stands in a street of Twilight Town, with two unfamiliar Keyblades strapped across his back, crossing over each other in an "X" shape. An armored knight approaches from the other end of the street, and Roxas draws the two Keyblades at once, causing a flash of flame to erupt from one and a warm glow from the other.

Xehanort and the man in the brown coat stand next to each other inside the old mansion, with the other man's hat lowered so his face can't be seen clearly. The man gasps as hundreds of small Heartless emerge from every crack in the walls and floors.

A burst of Darkness and one of Light collide in midair, causing a strange, silvery light to wash over the ground for a few seconds before the two blasts cancel each other out.

_"The disappearances are increasing lately..."_

_"Hide down there! None of them know of this place."_

King Mickey, wielding his Keyblade, looks around in a panic, noticing that he is surrounded by the strange, glowing creatures.

_"If this isn't stopped..."_

One of the armored knights fires a beam of light toward a building in the World That Never Was, causing the entire skyscraper to collapse and sending dust and debris flying everywhere.

_"...it will be the end of the world as we know it."_


End file.
